I'm Just a Little Nuts About Turquoise

"Turquoise and Lace"  8 x 10 sketch matted to 11 x 14

My love affair with jewelry has been with me for as long as I can remember.  It would be what you could call a long termed relationship.  I'm one of those girls that feel naked if I don't at least have earrings on but I prefer matching sets.  I don't need diamonds and emeralds.  No I'm happy with silver and Lapis Lazuli or Turquoise.  I don't really own many expensive pieces but I do have a few pieces that are priceless to me because they hold a great deal of sentimental value.  Several of those pieces involve turquoise.  It is hard for me to pick out my favorite gemstone because I love so many of them but turquoise would definitely be up pretty high on that list. 

A few years back I came into possession of my dear grandmother's jewelry box and got to keep anything I wanted out of it.  Most things were just little trinkets and silly little junk pieces she had collected but her chunky turquoise necklace and matching earrings (she didn't have pierced ears so they had screw on backs that I had to alter) are one of my favorite pieces to wear and I wear it proudly.  

My grandmother's chunky turquoise necklace and earrings

This week I really wanted to draw a piece that focused on turquoise and this is what I came up with.  I decided to call this "Turquoise and Lace" for obvious reasons.  I love how you can blend Prismacolor Pencils to give it a rounded 3D appearance.  These stones look to me like they are jumping off the page.  It make look difficult, but really it is pretty simple to accomplish.

So easy that I thought I would do a step by step demonstration here for anyone that might be interested.  I started this little drawing in my sketchbook just today.  Here let me show you....

I started by drawing out a simple gemstone design and a row of lace.  I'm going to use some of the same turquoise colors for this drawing as I did in my "Turquoise and Lace" piece.  Aquamarine(PC905), Light Aqua (PC992) and Peacock Blue(PC1027)

I use my lightest pencil color to set aside a small area that I'm going to make as my reflection.  This helps me to remember not to color in this area.

Now I take my Tombow marker and color in the whole area.  There is something about using markers or watercolor paint as a base layer on a pencil drawing that allows the pencil to blend and fill the white of the paper easier.  I picked a very light blue color for the marker.  You really won't see any of the marker when your done but you want the color to correspond with the pencils.

Here I have covered the entire gemstone area with my light aqua color.  Remember to very lightly color the reflection area.  I use a small circular motion with light pressure.  You don't want to go heavy here and fill the whole tooth of your paper so that none of you darker colors will penetrate. 

Now I take my second color.  Int his case it is aquamarine and fill only have of the gemstone area.  I want to leave the center of the stone with only my lightest color.  These small circular motions help prevent a line where the two colors transition.

Now I'm doing the same thing as the two previous steps with my darkest color, Peacock Blue.  I'm careful only to color the widest area of the gemstone design.  This gives the appearance of a rounded stone getting darker as you go further from the light source.  

Here is where the magic happens!  Take your white pencil and color over the whole stone area.  This blends the whole thing together and gives a very smooth appearance.  Now that wasn't hard was it?  I mean you are almost there.  Now you just have to focus on some ink work and shading but you have the most important part of the piece done.

Now this is an important discovery that I just made a few weeks ago purely by accident.  I picked up a few black pens at Michaels because I go through them pretty steadily.  I grabbed this pen called "LePen" by Marvy.  I AM IN LOVE!  Most of my drawing pens don't want to continue to draw over any colored pencil area because of the wax the pencils contain.  Every other medium is fine but just a few strokes on colored pencil and the pen stops working.  Not the "LePen".  This pen works great and I'm ordering more and in different colors.  So here I have added the black webbing or matrix lines that most turquoise has.  Some turquoise has brown or white lines but I decided to stick with the traditional black lines.  

Here I have used my N60 Tombow marker (my favorite of all markers in my set of 96).  This color is absolutely perfect for shading.  I just draw around any area that I want to be shaded and talk about making it pop right off the page!

More ink work added here.  I am using the tip end of a Tombow marker.

I made the decision to make the lace a teal color to match the gemstone.  The same shading applies.  You use three colors to give that depth you want and then I blended the whole area with white.  

My final step here is to add the spots of white highlight to the composition.  I use a fine tipped painting brush and some white acrylic paint to lightly apply spots of light to the specific areas on the gemstone, silver and the lace.  

See how easy that was.  I would love to hear from you if you try to create your own or if you found this blog helpful.  In a few weeks I'm planning on teaching this to my after school art club I am starting.  I'm really looking forward to helping kids have as much fun as I do with some pencils and a sketchbook.

Be sure and check out my website if you want to see more of my artwork!

The Start of my First Painting for 2016

I know the month is half over and I'm just now starting my first painting of 2016.  Seems a bit out of character for me but things have been very hectic.  I started out the year with some sort of respitory virus that really caused me to slow down and then last week I have the start of an ongoing family medical emergency that is requiring daily trips to the hospital.  I also know that the more hours you spend in the hospital your chances of catching some sort of sickness goes up exponentially and so for a second time this month I found myself once again on the sick bed.  So even with the best laid plans to make 2016 my ART YEAR, I'm here on January 21st and not having much to show creatively for the past few weeks.

I was able to add one sketch in my artistic journal while waiting in the hospital surgery waiting room.  I drew a jersey calf because I plan to start a painting.  Sketching details that you plan to add as components in your composition help you to understand the subject and also help you paint it with more accuracy.  This little sketch is only with graphite pencils and a little black ink but my other recent cow sketches are done using Prismacolor colored pencils.

After completing these two renderings, I decided that I really liked how the soft brown of the Jersey calf rather than the little holster looked against the blue of the morning glories.  So a Jersey cow it is with his big brown eyes and soft brown fur.  Now that I have actually started the painting on a 24x36 canvas and am painting it vertically for the emphasis on height, I have decided to add the mother cow to the composition.  I only have her roughly sketched in with a white pastel pencil but I think there was just going to be way too much blank space without her.  This piece is just roughly blocked in at this point and if I can stay healthy long enough I hope to make real progress on it this weekend.  I will share some progress photos of the work in my future blog posts so please keep check back.

If you like my work and would like to see more, check out my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  Also consider leaving a comment below.  I would love to hear from you.

Making a Mark

I was stuck by that simple phrase yesterday- "Making a Mark".  What a great title for my journals and so I'm going to be working to add a tab on my website that showcases my journal entries and hopefully I can inspire others to grab a pencil or pen and join me in creating their own artist journal.

Yesterday, was a stressful and not very productive day for me.  I haven't painted anything for almost a week now and my studio is still in disarray from our long vacation.  So many things need to be put away and organized first.  I find that it is hard to be creative in the middle of a mess.  So distracted and disorientated, I chose to retreat to my journal and try to record my feelings instead.  

I have to say that I am having fun drawing simple cartoonish drawings that tell a story rather than focus on skill.  When I am done drawing, my spirits are lifted and I almost always feel like smiling.  

If you are interested in viewing my serious artwork, you can check my website out at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  

A Few Pencil Take Just a Little Space

Away for the weekend and once again unable to pack up all the painting equipment but there is always room for my drawing box and a pad of paper.  This is a drawing of my grandson taken almost two years ago.  I'm calling this pencil sketch"Judah and the Sock Monkry Hat ".  The details were fun to add in and I might add a red tint in a few places and get a red mat board to finish it off.  This piece will be hanging in November at City if the World gallery for first Friday.

Do Art With What You Got

This past weekend, I got the privilege of taking a road trip to Reno, Nevada to celebrate the first birthday of my beautiful granddaughter.  The drive takes a solid 7 hours and that is if you only stop once for a quick purge and fill up.  This trip was unusual because we were stuffed to the trunk hinges with all the necessities to stay a few days for the 5 of us.  The only thing is, when one of those five is only 10 months old, then the amount of luggage and baggage is multiplied exponentially.  That was the case this weekend, but I managed to squeeze amongst the diapers, toys and high chair a sketch pad and my sketch box.  It might not be oils and a canvas but you do art with what you got.

I found a few peaceful hours to complete this little sketch of a Navajo girl from an old photo.  I like how she has turned and I think the next thing for me to do is to head down to the Hobby Lobby for a mat and frame.

Navajo Girl (At' eed)-  8x10 Graphite and Pen sketch

Sketch and Then Sketch Some More

I have always been a doodler...the margins of my note pads have often been filled with little nonsensical drawings, some of them recognizable and many simply shaded forms and scrolls.  I may be sitting still listening to the lecture, sermon or teaching but my pencil is always moving.  Drawing is the first step to improving your painting and really can't be emphasized enough.  I've been cleaning up in the studio today and took out my stack of unused sketchpads from out of the drawer where they are hidden from sight and moved them prominently on the shelf where I will remember to use them.

Tonight, I sat down and began to draw an iguana because I noticed a number of people walking through the gallery made comments about one of the artists work that contain iguanas, lions and horses.  Animals, and yes even reptiles are a favorite subject of many an art observer.  I decided that I'm going to start including some sketches on my gallery wall and see the response that I get.  Below I have added a couple of my pencil and ink creations.   

I had noticed recently a very interesting idea to prepare a small simple sketch of the eye of each member of your household and have it framed together.  I think that was a great idea and one that I want to do for each of my kids.  I could see doing a family nose, lip and ear study also.  This can be added to my long list of art endeavors.  So grab a pencil and piece of paper and draw something! 

Tonight's Iguana Sketch

The shallow edge of the pool at the Super 8 Motel, Santa Clarita California

Inspiring

Study of an Eye

Network your artwork

Last night, I was sitting at a board meeting of my local art guild that I serve as treasurer for and I was considering the value of networking.  After all, that is the main reason I joined the guild in the first place. One individual present who just so happens to teach classes on the social media site Facebook stated, "You should never post pictures of your entire artwork because the risk that you creation will be stolen and used without your permission.  Also the public won't want to come see your exhibitions because they have seen everything you have to offer on the internet."  As I glanced around the table at all my fellow artists, I knew that I was probably the only individual sitting there that happily shares each piece of art as I complete it on a regular basis.  

I have taken the approach to chronicle my creative journey that I am embarked on.  Partly as a method of journaling my progression and also hopefully by inspiring others to pick up a brush, a canvas and just go PAINT! Grab your camera and shoot pictures of the first thing that grabs your eye.  Pick up that sketch pad and a pencil and just start drawing.  The important thing is to get creative.  Your life and those around you will be greatly enriched.

There is freedom in letting that creative person emerge after years of ignoring him or her.  If my posting one piece of art, blog about something I have learned or sharing a problem that I am currently struggling with results in someone letting their buried passion be stirred, then I happily post my work, the ENTIRE painting.  After all, we have all heard that "Imitation is the highest form of flattery" and while I'm not hanging in galleries or supporting myself by the sales of my artwork just yet, both are on my goals list. Maybe my thoughts will change as I get closer to my goals but right now, I just want to share the things I learn and be transparent because I hope that others will learn along with me.

This is also my motivation with this blog.  I watch as people from all points of this planet, open my pages.  I would love to hear more from my readers if there is something that is helpful or if I made you chuckle because you can identify with what I am feeling.

I end this blog post with a photo taken of me enjoying a beautiful Utah afternoon trying to look as if I know how to be an artist plein air style