Losing My Marbles

[BeaSue]

This is the practice exercise I have been working on this week.

Details

I am learning a lot about CPs. For someone who is used to working in watercolor, it is hard to adjust to a medium that does not flow! All gradations of color have to be laid down, one by one, and the process takes a very long time.

I am discovering that I prefer using OMS (odorless mineral spirits) to the colorless blender that Prismacolor has for burnishing, as it fills in the valleys of the paper better. I use a tortillon to apply it. I think I also like using the tortillon alone, rather than the colorless blender, which is a product that also lays down a waxy layer on top of the pencils.

My set has a variety of greys: cool greys, warm greys, and French greys, and in each of these there are various depths, such as 20%, 50%, 70%--one pencil for each. It was useful to experiment with these in the shadows.

And I also used complementary colors on a few of the marbles to add depth or shadow.

[dennis]

Brilliant

[BeaSue]

Ah, thank you so much, Dennis.

[Danielle123]

beautiful marbles, great transparencies.   

[Happychappy]

    Fantastic Susan.  So exciting to see you excelling with coloured pencils.   Patricia

[BeaSue]

  very much, Danielle and Patricia. It is very challenging for me, that's for sure!

[Danielle123]

I did not notice your explanation on CP ans I find it is also hard to blend compare to WC.  Did you go from light to dark, also do you blend with a lighter colour. I do not have the  oderless mineral spirit but I tried rubbing alcool and it seem to dilute/blend the PC.  do you have have rubbing alcool at home and if you do can you make a test for me to see if it does the same thing.   If you don't no worries I will get some mineral spirit some time in the future.
thank for all your info.

[BeaSue]

Danielle, I will try a test with alcohol and see how it compares with OMS. I'll post the results of my experiment tomorrow.

In general, I went from light to dark. On the yellow marble, I laid down some violet first for the darker areas, using the tip about complementary colors. I think one thing that helps is using a lot of layers, and also overlapping colors to achieve a gradual blending. I confess, it is harder than I thought it would be!

I forgot to mention that I used Stonehenge paper which I like. Some say this is one of the best papers to use for CP. it accepts a lot of layering and holds up to OMS.

[Danielle123]

thank you Sue for the clarification of colour mixing and yes it is harder than I thought too.    for the type of paper, now I have 2 new ones to try.

[Annie.]

Wow, beautiful!  Never would have imagine that something so realistic could be done with CP.

[MaryAnne Long]

Susan,

W-O-W is an understatement.  These marbles are incredible.  The colors are amazing.  Hard to believe it's colored pencils!!

Oh, W-O-W!

aloha

mea

[BeaSue]

  so much, Annie and Mea. I really appreciate your comments. I hit a dry spell with watercolor recently, so this was a nice break.

[sally13]

Your marbles are amazing Susan. I have a large set of colored pencils that i have barely used through lack of knowing how to use them. Good to hear that you are pushing on experimenting and figuring them out. Great job.

[BeaSue]

  Sally for those kind words. I enjoy learning new things. It keeps my mind nimble (I hope!). I have a few books on colored pencil art now, and am trying to practice what I'm learning. Like any new thing, it's going to take a lot of practice before I feel comfortable in this medium. But there is a large part of me that seems to like the painstaking nature of this. I don't think it will replace watercolor, my first love.

[Annie.]

It is just a little break and it is good to stretch.  Your WC are so beautiful, you will back to it... as soon as Dennis get a new lesson out, it will spark you up.

Nothing we learn is lost or in vain, everything counts.