Robin's Heart

Robin's Heart was a project of love for my sister Robin.  Hearts are one of her favorites and the feather represents our mother who passed away several years ago.  Please excuse the background shine, I neglected to take a final photo before I had the piece matted and shrink wrapped in preparation for shipping.

I'd like to share the process of how this came together for those who are interested.

The tangle I used to morph into a heart is "Grace" by Helena. It's a tricky little beast!  All I can say about the pattern is to tackle two or three hearts in the chain at a time to achieve the 3-D effect.  I started this one twice to get it right. I used a Micron .01 to draw the hearts after first drawing a penciled in heart shape first.

This photo shows the pattern completed with color, shading and highlights added. I used my favorite colored pencils, Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils.  They really take the color layers beautifully without a waxy bloom.  Seven colors were used so achieve the dominant color and shading.  You can see the feather design sketched in the middle getting ready to add color.

Feather has been added and now we're ready for the background!

Concentration! The tangle pattern used for the background is "Y-Ful Power" by Soshi. Click on this link for the step-out.  The pattern is started with an offset grid drawn in pencil.  If you look at the step-out this will make more sense.  I drew the entire grid in pencil first and then started the pattern, only doing one small section at a time. Again I used a Micron .01 for the pattern lines. Next came the shading, I use a 4B graphite pencil and a paper blending stub for detail.  For the shadow I still went for a 4B but applied a much denser layer of graphite before blending.

So there it is! I'd be happy to answer any questions about this piece or tangled inspired art in general, just leave me a comment and I promise to get back to you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Nautilus

 Mixed Media

21 x 15"

Strathmore Smooth Bristol Board

This is a piece I recently completed with the hopes of gaining more experience with colored pencils.  This is a new medium for me even though I purchased Faber-Castell Polychromos some time ago and added Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils for this project, I have completed only one other piece and used a very limited palette.  I really wanted to practice layering and shading and include other mediums in the mix.

Because this was more about color application and I didn't want to think about design, I dowloaded one of Ben Kwok's wonderful templates from the Facebook Ornation Creation group page and enlarged it at a local print shop.  The image itself measures 15 x 11".  I found out this was quite a bit of real estate to cover, this took about 45 hours to complete!

 Detail of center.

Detail of Golden Interference Orange Fluid Acrylic Paint

The interference paint in some areas really made things pop.  From one angle the paint appears orange and from the opposite angle it appears teal.  The little ovals all around the edge and the swirl in the center were painted with Golden Iridescent Copper Light. This photo also shows the need for mastering the waxy bloom of layering colored pencils.  Even with the use of Gamsol between some of the layers, my heavier dark color application at the end produced bloom.  Gotta work on that!

Speaking of layers,the following shots show the progression of color application which began with a light wash of Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Light watercolor and then worked up from there with the Caran d'Ache Luminence colored pencils.

Thanks for stopping by!