What's on the drawing board

My apologies for not posting in nearly a week. Good grief but where does the time go? Actually I have been enjoying some quiet time over the holidays, and I hope you have been enjoying your holiday time too.

I thought I would share this work in progress, so that you can see a bit of the process. It is colored pencil on Rising Museum board, 8 x 8 inches. Right now it is titled "Roots".

Here it is in the initial stage, what I like to call my "map".  After drawing in graphite a basic outline of the main shapes in the composition I begin by filling in areas of very light color. In fact, it is so light you almost can't see it here although it does show up well enough in real life. I used cool reds and blues for the areas of ground, a peachy color for tree bits and a creamy yellow for the spots that will be the dappled sunlight. The reason I didn't stick to monochromatic or analogous colors overall for this one was that I wanted to create a slight separation of figure and ground with the underpainting of warm colors for the figure (tree) and cooler colors for the ground (ground, in this case).

And here it is after beginning to add local color to the tree. As I did this I also dropped in a little more color to the ground portion at the top. It's really a back and forth kind of dance as I add a new color, extend color along the tree trunk, go back and adjust color in previously worked areas. . .

 This is what I did yesterday, which is the same as the image at the top. I continued that back and forth dance down the trunk and into a couple of the roots. Since I was uncertain just how I wanted to handle the ground portion of this composition, I went ahead and started in one of the smaller sections at the bottom left, to see how it would read. Once convinced that what I had going was okay for now, I continued with that as I moved around the base of the tree. This is a fun, although challenging piece to work on. Having done this much I am now really motivated to see it finished.

With the new year just around the corner, I have lots of new ideas and plans, as well as a renewed commitment to projects already in progress. Next post I'll give a run down of all that's in the works here at BlueBird Hill for 2011. Stay tuned.

A holiday greeting for you

Wishing you a bright and happy holiday.

A year in sketchbooks

Another page from my autumn sketchbook, one of the last sketches before I moved into my newly made winter sketchbook. I have been making my own sketchbooks for a year now and I must say that it would be somewhat difficult to go back to using a commercially made sketchbook at this point.

Here is a photo of my year of sketchbooks with the most recent edition for this winter sitting on the very top. The sketchbooks that I make for myself are not as nicely made as those you can buy. And with each one there was something that went wrong in the process of putting it together that makes it not quite altogether right. You could call them quirky. But they work for me. They have paper that I like which works well with a variety of media. I also include a signature in the front and back using regular copy paper and use these pages to paste in a calendar and scribble notes. I put a pocket in the back to hold business cards and collect things. The act of making these sketchbooks has become a ritual of sorts throughout the year. I have begun each one with the change of season, either on the solstice or equinox. This has resulted in a greater awareness in me of the turning of the year and increased my desire to make note of each season's special qualities in my journal. For my handmade sketchbook from last winter, I recycled a used book found in a thrift store. For all of the other sketchbooks I made my own covers, which then also became a part of the ritual process. All of the materials, the fabric and end papers, were something I already had on hand, leftovers from past projects now given a new life. There has been something very satisfying in all of this, as a way to mark the passage of time and celebrate the moment that is now.

*There is a new blog on keeping an artists' journal, put together by Cathy Johnson, and well worth a visit. It was her class "Keeping an Artists' Journal" that inspired me with my own visual journaling, which she has turned into a book, Artists' Journal Workshop, and now a blog. And reading all of the fascinating interviews on her blog is sure to keep me busy while I am eagerly waiting for my copy of her book.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Solstice Sun, Shining Bright!
Shortest Day & Longest Night.
Solstice Wish of Hope & Cheer:
Peace on Earth, throughout the Year!
-   Selena Fox 

Some December sketches

Trees. My obsession with trees continues. Just can't seem to get them quite right. Of course, now that they are all bare of leaves it all really depends on the structure of line. So I have been doing a few tree studies in my sketchbook, because I need so much practice with trees. And line.

I have been reading a few books about drawing trees, too, trying to gain some insight, gleaning the wisdom of how others have dealt with interpreting trees in various media. Trees have so much character. And dignity.

I rediscovered my Neocolor II crayons the other day. They allow for drawing and painting at the same time. And unlike the brush, one has to start with line, perfect for trees in winter. With a brush it's all about shape, but with the crayon, I have to find the line first, which is a different way of seeing for me. Do you ever do that? Change your approach in order to train yourself to see in a new way? Do you more naturally draw with line or shape?

The bottom image is a view outside my living room window on a snowy day, done with Neocolor II water soluble crayons. Well, everyday has been a snowy day here lately. The middle image is a study I did in graphite from an old photo, and the top is also from a photo, taken last winter of a pasture near my house, also done with Neocolor II crayon.

Something warm

River Path

oil on canvas

6 x 6 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here for purchase information

A warm scene to remember on a cold day like today here in our southern mountains. This is painting #50 of my 100 painting project, a view of the North Fork of the New River as seen from a nearby park on a summer's day. And boy is it cold here today! Up to 12 degrees F. And snowing. And blowing snow with winds gusting up to 55 miles per hour. This winter's blast has me wanting to curl up with a good book or my crochet projects. And I may have to bake some cookies. That's the thing about living here in the mountains. When the weather here is nice it is absolutely gorgeous. But when it's not so nice, it's brutal. I hope you are staying warm where you are. And that you have some cookies too.

Pond - finished

Pond

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

8 x 8 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

At least I am calling it finished at this point. I will live with it for a few more days just in case I am inspired to do a little more tweaking. And the title, well, that may change too, if I can think of something better.

You may remember my recent post showing the first two stages of this piece. Above is what it looked like once I had the entire board covered with color.

And here it is again, in it's finished state. Actually the green and yellow leaf in the lower left is more accurate in the unfinished version as far as color and intensity, the evils of getting color correct from scanning! But the changes that I made from stage 3 to the final were that I felt the orange at the top to be too strong, so I lifted some color there and went over it with a more neutral orange-y color. I also added some veins and texture to the red leaf that is in the lower portion and deepened the color of the water in places. And there was the usual cleaning up and sharpening of some edges, while softening others. And lastly, I intensified some of the yellow areas, which really doesn't show up well here. The yellows are somewhat brighter in real life. You will just have to take my word for that.

Summer Blooms revisited

Summer Blooms

oil on canvas

6 x 8 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here for purchase information

Remembering summer today. This is painting #49 in my 100 painting project. Just a few short months ago this was the view in our yard, abundant with color against the rich greens in the backdrop of the trees. Now all that remains is our memory of these glorious blossoms as we head into winter here in our mountains. And it has been cold these past few days. With snow blowing around. Remember our beans? Well here's a guy who really takes counting his beans seriously. I am just hoping he's more than a little off in his calculations this year.

In the studio

I thought I would share what is on my drawing board these days. This is a work-in-progress, an image of the edge of a pond in the autumn. I am working this in colored pencil on Rising Museum board. It is 8 x 8 inches. Above is the drawing in an early stage, showing how I mapped in a few basic value shapes with cool grays before starting to use local color. I sometimes find that an under painting like this will help to unify the work. I choose the color of the under painting based on the overall color in my reference or what sort of color I would like in the finished work. Sometimes I use grays, sometimes I use monochromatic or analogous colors of a particular hue. In this case, cool grays seemed to go with the watery feel of this piece.

And here it is as I continue to add local color while moving across the drawing. As I add color to an area I will also continually go back to previously colored areas to make adjustments in color. This process will continue until I have the entire drawing covered with color. At that point, the entire piece is evaluated for color and value and final adjustments are made to unify and finish the drawing. I also need to be mindful throughout the process of where I intend to place the emphasis in this piece. And I need to leave room for what the drawing will tell me as it emerges, because sometimes the emphasis becomes something I didn't plan for at the outset. I love what Twyla Tharp says about planning in her book, The Creative Habit:
"Too much planning implies you've gt it all under control. That's boring, unrealistic, and dangerous. It lulls you into complacency. . ."

Holiday sketching

. . . or just another story for Kiddo to tell about her wacky family. You see, the day before Thanksgiving we went looking for figs to make fig bread. This was inspired by our friend's recent experience eating fig bread while on one of his travels, and wanting to share this new treat with us. We located a recipe and three stores later came home with figs. They were so interesting to look at that we all decided to sketch them first, before making the bread. Meanwhile, Kiddo is patiently waiting for dinner to happen. She knows how involved we can get with our watercolor sketching.

So Kiddo finally comes into the kitchen to check on the progress of dinner and finds the adults in her life standing on chairs photographing our sketching set up, because the table was so visually interesting you know, what with all of our sketching gear, and figs, scattered about.

The table was eventually cleared, we had a lovely dinner and made the fig bread later that evening, which we thoroughly enjoyed as a breakfast treat Thanksgiving morning.

Thanksgiving day our table was in much the same state, watercolor supplies and sketchbooks about. But Kiddo kept us on task and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

The following day we were back at it again, with watercolors and sketchbooks. Holidays with family, friends, and good food (that also makes a good still life subject) is a holiday well spent.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; 

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

-Marcel Proust

Apples to apples

I have exciting news! I now have prints of a few of my favorite works available in my Etsy shop. These are drawings that I really enjoyed doing, and the originals sold fairly quickly. I have plans to do more works like this. But until I do, I thought it would be fun to bring these back as prints. If all goes well, I will continue adding more works as prints to my Etsy store.

These top two are colored pencil drawings on Rising Museum Board. The one above is titled Apples, and to the left is More Apples. The giclee prints of these works are 5 x 7 inches centered on an 8 x 10 inch Somerset velvet paper.

I was a little nervous over how prints of these works would look, but I have to tell you, they look really, really good. I was very pleased.

I also had prints made of my graphite drawing, Clementine. The prints of this one are 4.5 x 6.5 inches, also centered on an 8 x 10 inch Somerset velvet paper. The prints do show all the richness of the values, especially noticeable in this piece. Seeing these works again as prints makes me eager to get back to the drawing board!

Familiar Path

Familiar Path

oil on canvas

6 x 6 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

For purchase information click here

This is #48 of my 100 painting project. It is a late summer view of the carriage trail at Cone Manor on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This old carriage trail is one of our favorite locations to hike and sketch. From here the trail dips under the parkway and then climbs up a hill where you can see Grandfather Mountain out across a mountain pastoral view. I wish I could take you there, you would love it.

Get ready

ACEO Carolina Coastal Marshland V

watercolor

2.5 x 3.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here to purchase 

ACEO Carolina Coastal Marshland VI

watercolor

2.5 x 3.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here to purchase 

Here are the last two art cards of my Marshland series. Both are watercolor with a few touches of watercolor pencil thrown in. I really enjoyed making these. It was fun to select my favorite marsh scenes and translate them into these small watercolor paintings.  They also helped keep my mind on sunny days as we have settled into November here. Next week it will be all about cooking and baking and visiting and feasting as the winter holiday season gets underway. No, I am not ready. Not even close. Are you?

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

Solitary Here

Solitary Here

oil on canvas

6 x 8 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here for purchase information

This is #47 of my 100 painting project, a scene from Botany Bay at Edisto Island, SC. I was taken with this tree, or is it two trees, standing alone out in the marsh. Trees can exhibit such dignity and grace. All the more noticeable when out on their own, without the company of others for security.

I love what John F. Carlson had to say about trees:

"It is curious how one's feelings about trees change in proportion to one's appreciation of their importance and dignity as live beings. Trees are individual beings: they can be comic, heroic, tragic to the sensitive, practiced eye of the landscape artist."

Marshes, snow, and beans

ACEO Carolina Coastal Marshland III

watercolor

2.5 x 3.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

 Click here to purchase

 

ACEO Carolina Coastal Marshland IV

watercolor

2.5 x 3.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

 Click here to purchase

 

Here are the next two in my series of Carolina Coastal Marshland art cards. I sure do miss that warmer coastal climate, especially after the prelude to winter we experienced here this past week with our first dusting of snow. There is a saying here in the southern mountains that for every fog in August there will be a snowfall in winter. So this past August Kiddo put a bean in a jar every day there was fog. Seven beans. We removed the first bean last Friday when there was snow on the ground. One down, six to go. That doesn't seem so bad. Especially after last winter. I might be able to handle six more snowfalls. Maybe. At the very least we'll find out if that old saying is true.

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

Marshland Art Cards

ACEO Carolina Coastal Marshland I

watercolor

2.5 x 3.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here to purchase

ACEO Carolina Coastal Marshland II

watercolor

2.5 x 3.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Click here to purchase

Here are the first two in a series of six art cards inspired by the marshlands of the coastal Carolinas. These were done with watercolor and a few touches here and there with watercolor pencil. I worked from my favorite scenes from our travels to the coasts of North and South Carolina. Coming from the mountains I always enjoy seeing the open space of the landscape and a wide horizon. And the suggestion of water reflecting all of that sky.

Something orange

This little pie pumpkin and several small gourds have been decorating our table since the beginning of October. And I have been meaning to sketch them since then, too. So, on Saturday evening while the professor took Kiddo out to collect some treats, I spent my time making this sketch while waiting for the little goblins collecting candy to come to our door.  And, last week's Everyday Matters drawing challenge was to draw something orange!

Boo!

Halloween can be frightening. Especially for a child with food allergies. If you have been reading here for a while then you probably already know that Kiddo has a life threatening allergy to peanut. Keeping her safe is something we have to think about every single day. And Halloween is her favorite holiday! Which is why I usually choose this time to mention her food allergy. I feel that the least I can do is try to promote greater understanding and awareness on her behalf. Please consider making a donation to FAAN, an organization that works hard "to raise public awareness, to provide advocacy and education, and to advance research on behalf of all those affected by food allergies and anaphylaxis."

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

Reclaimed Moment

Reclaimed Moment

oil on canvas

6 x 6 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

For purchase information click here

It's always a little tough getting back into the routine of things after being away, even if it was for only a few days. But I'm not complaining, just easing back into my days of homeschooling lessons and making art.

This is painting #46 of my 100 painting project, another view of the marshes of Botany Bay at Edisto Island, SC. I have quite a backlog of paintings to post. Hopefully I will be able to maintain a more regular blogging schedule and get up to date before the year ends!

Sunny days

A page of my sketchbook done while sitting on the screened porch of our rental cottage at Edisto Beach, where we enjoyed a few glorious days of sun, sand, and lots of relaxation. Back home now, and back to work. Sorry for the lapse in postings but I'll be back on schedule soon.

Balance

Two Trees on the Hill

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

4.5 x 6.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

This is what I have been working on over the past few days. I have been wanting to get back to working in  colored pencil and used this drawing as a practice piece of sorts, to become familiar again with drawing. There are more paintings of my 100 painting project coming, but I have been feeling a need for more balance in my work. Drawing, for me, is such a nice balance to painting.

This is a view from the Blue Ridge Parkway near my home. Just over the hill with the trees and before the more distant hill is a road that I travel nearly every time I return from town. I have always liked the openness there. Just before that stretch the road is very windy and tree lined. Then the road straightens out for a bit as it rises up with these bare, rolling hills on either side and it's like an exhale, ahhhh....

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

Auntmn sketches

A couple of sketches from my autumn handmade sketchbook. Leaves and a dried marigold seed head found blowing around the yard, done in watercolor only, no pencil.

And a pear left over from our favorite new (to us) side dish. The recipe I found online at allrecipes.com. The pears at the grocery were too beautiful not to purchase a few. Of course, I then had to find some way to use them up after their photo session for future reference. This dish was so very tasty and very easy to prepare. (I left out the liqueur) I don't know why I hadn't tried pears this way before, but I do know I will be making it again.

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

Acorns

I sat down and sketched these acorns the other evening, using watercolor pencils. There is a little collection of acorns on our kitchen windowsill, collected from the yard and driveway. We have had an abundance of acorns this year. That seems to suggest a hard winter ahead. I hope not. Not again. Although last year we had almost no acorns fall from our oak trees. And last winter here was brutal. So I don't know what that means. Except that for a few weeks we heard the constant ping of acorns falling onto the driveway.

I love that acorns are so full of possibility. That's usually how I feel about this time of year too. Something about the Autumn, when October comes around, that makes me think of new beginnings, a fresh start. More so than in January even. Maybe it's because of all those acorns.

(this moment)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

-inspired by Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama

Some Hours

Some Hours

oil on canvas

6 x 8 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

For purchase information click here

This is #45 of my 100 painting project. It is another view from Botany Bay at Edisto Island, SC., from our visit there last spring. As we were making our way along the boardwalk that leads through the marshes and out to the beach, I looked back and noticed this grouping of grand old trees. The way the morning light was softly falling among their leaves and branches happened to catch my attention. They looked so graceful and accepting of their position there at the edge of the marshlands.