Just a few more

I realized that it's been almost a week since my last post. So I thought I'd share a few more examples of the exercises I have done for Cathy Johnson's Watercolor Pencil class.

Taking this online class has been very motivating, and a great learning experience. As I mentioned previously, just like with any instruction, whether in person or online, you get out of it what you put into it. And it is a lot of work to show up and put forth the effort required, but the rewards are so worth it. I have had a wonderful experience with this class and would highly recommend to anyone considering taking one of Kate's classes - do it. She is a terrific teacher.

You can see from these examples some of the techniques I tried out with this "new-to-me" media. I wanted to try everything at least once. The beauty of taking a class like this is that you are free to experiment. The pressure is off.

There is also the added benefit of seeing the works done by the other students. Everyone trying out the same lesson in their own way, contributes to the shared learning experience. Something you can't really get from practicing solo.

And now that the course is coming to a close I will miss it. I enjoyed having assignments to complete and the freedom to play and learn a new media. Having spent these last several weeks intensely studying the use of watercolor pencils I now feel much more confident using water media. Confident enough that I do want to continue using watercolor pencils in some way. I guess this is where the real work begins, as I figure out how I want to put all of this new knowledge to use.

If you give a mom a muffin

She's going to want some coffee to go with it. When she gets some milk for her coffee she notices that the milk is almost gone. So she starts a grocery list but drops her pencil on the floor. When she picks up her pencil she sees something sticky on the floor and realizes it's time to mop. But before she can mop she has to vacuum all the dog hairs and crumbs off the floor. So she figures that if she is going to vacuum she might as well gather up the dirty clothes and do a load of wash. While vacuuming she decides to take all the throw rugs outside to shake them out. This reminds her that she also needs to dust. After dusting, vacuuming, mopping, and laundry are done she remembers she hasn't done her assignments for watercolor pencil class. So she sits down and paints a picture of the muffin. After she finishes her picture of the muffin her child comes in and says, "Are you going to eat that?"

*If you haven't read Laura Numeroff's children's books, Including "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", you should. They are all delightful. Yes, and Kiddo ate the muffin.

Loose ends

Sunrise II
colored pencil on pastel board
5 x 7 inches
©Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

I have had this little work on my drawing board forever. This past weekend I decided it was time to get it finished. It was begun with Neocolor II crayons, washed with water, then Derwent's Coloursofts colored pencil over top. I am still working on my assignments for the last week of watercolor pencil class and then there's lots of new stuff I want to try. So I needed to finish up these loose ends. Besides, I though you all might need a break from all my efforts with watercolor pencil! I put this piece, along with three other recent colored pencil works, in my Etsy store and on my sales blog.

Unfamiliar ground

The thing about taking an art class, if you are really going to get anything out of it, is that you must stretch yourself to try techniques and subject matter that you wouldn't usually do. In fact, some subject matter I have made a point of avoiding in order to focus on my strengths*. (*read comfort zone) Waiting for those people to get out of the way so I can get a clear reference photo of that landscape scene. Pausing while the animals or birds move on so I can more easily see that tree or flower. Shoo!

This past week the watercolor pencil class was all about animals and people. Now I had to confront my most dreaded subjects. I did learn that if I want to become comfortable with these subjects I need a lot more practice. That's something to work on.

Above is a watercolor pencil sketch from a photo of my daughter, from our recent trip to the beach. It's about 6 x 8 inches on cold press watercolor paper.
The assignment here was to do a portrait of your favorite bird. I found the image of the bluebird in the Wet Canvas image library, again it's about 6x8 inches on cold press.
Learning about textures I tried a study of a feather in my watercolor moleskin. At least this was more familiar territory.

Sun, sun, sun

Sunflower
watercolor pencil
6 x 8 inches on cold press
©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Here it comes. Although a day late, Happy Summer Solstice! It is a gorgeous summer day here and in celebration of the summer sun I thought I'd share this sunny flower with you all. This was another exercise for the watercolor pencil class. The class has two more lessons (weeks) and I will be sorry to see it end. I have been having a blast experimenting with this media and see many possibilities for incorporating watercolor pencil with my colored pencil work. But taking a course of this type does require a good deal of time. So not only have I slowed down on posting here but I have been neglecting my blogger friends as well. For that I appreciate your patience and plan to get back into the rhythm of things very soon.

A little Monet-ish

Water Lilies
watercolor pencil on hot press
6x8 inches
©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Another watery subject from water color pencil class. This class continues to be challenging and a lot of fun.

Free to play

Here is a sampling of what I have been busy with these days. These are some of the exercises I have done for the watercolor pencil class, covering water and rocks. Top is my sketch of rocks, on Arches hot press.
This was for an exercise on waves. Here I worked on cold pressed paper and allowed the texture of the paper to play a part.
Here was my exercise showing a waterfall, on Arches hot press. This one in particular is a subject I would not normally choose, out of intimidation. That's one of the wonderful things about taking a course such as this. It forces me to try different things and break out of my comfort zone. I am free to play, try out all sorts of techniques, and learn a lot in the process, without worrying about staying consistent or creating a "style" or taking my work too seriously. I have more exercises from the class posted here where you'll see what I mean.

Not music yet

Tree Bark
watercolor pencil on arches hp
4.5 x 6 inches

So, I am still very involved with Kate's Watercolor Pencil Workshop and busy completing all of the exercises and homework assignments. This bark study was done for one of the exercises. When our daily summer thundershowers prevented me from observing a tree or two in our yard I went through my recent photos from our trip and found this image of a tree. Yes, I am that kind of tourist, photographing the bark of some unknown tree because it looks interesting to me. Besides, who knows when I might want a reference of interesting tree bark? Good thing, too, because it already came in handy for my class work.

Playing with these watercolor pencils reminded me of a story about my musically gifted nephew. It seems he was given a trumpet to learn for the school band when he was about middle school age or so. His dad told me that when he first came home with the trumpet it was nothing but noise for about three days. Sometime around the fourth day of my nephew practicing his trumpet, there was suddenly music. I have quite a few lessons yet to do with this watercolor pencil class. I'm still just making noise, but hopefully I'll eventually I'll find the music.

A little lemon

Here's another quick watercolor sketch I did while away on our family visit. The one time when everyone came together each day was dinner time. Marathon cooking of huge amounts of food that eventually resulted in a meal. One of my contributions was coleslaw, for which I needed lemon juice. It's a recipe I remember from some old cookbook; cabbage, a little onion, mayo, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and caraway seeds. The slaw is even better the next day. If there is any left over, that is.

She sells sea shells

I'm now back from a family visit at the coast this past week. We had hot, sunny days and a lot of activity catching up with everyone. It is very good to be finally home but oh I have so much to catch up on. Thanks to all who followed my Every Day in May to the very end! While away I was really missing doing the daily sketching as there just wasn't the opportunity to do as much drawing as I would have liked. These shells were drawn in my watercolor moleskine with watercolor pencils. We didn't find any shells like these on the beach. These shells were some of the decorations in the beach house where we stayed.