Happy Solstice!

 "Solstice Sun, Shining Bright!

Shortest Day & Longest Night.

 

Solstice Wish of Hope & Cheer:

 

Peace on Earth, throughout the Year!"
-   Selena Fox 

Lots of projects going on around here. Many plans for our winter break have been made, including a healthy amount of "down time". We are enjoying the peace. Celebrating the turning of the year and so ready for the days to begin to grow longer again. In order to fully attend to the festivities and my many projects that I hope to accomplish, I am going to take a short break from this space. I plan to return refreshed and with new ideas and art to share. May you enjoy peace and light during your holidays and throughout the coming year.

Sketchbook Tuesday - Buddy Hollyday

This is Buddy Hollyday, one of our Christmas decorations. When Kiddo was small she acquired many stuffed toys. The ones that were Christmas themed have remained as part of our decorating for the holidays. I don't remember exactly when Buddy joined the ranks, but he gets to come out of the box with the ornaments and other decorations each year and spend a few weeks sitting on a shelf observing the seasonal festivities.

And it wouldn't be Christmas for Kiddo without baking cookies. Lots of cookies. This first batch is oatmeal chocolate chip. Next up are decorated sugar cookies, then snow balls, and I think ginger snaps are on her list too. Did I mention fudge? Yes, there will be fudge. Oh my.

(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 

Details

 After posting this piece a few days ago, I was asked by Revelle of Image Maker to post a few detail, close up images. I know I always want to see art works up close and am often disappointed when artists keep their images too small to enlarge on blogs. You can click on the images here to see them even bigger if you like. Above is from the lower left where the water is splashing on the rocks.

This is from the center, where the water is rushing down between the rocks. I used my erasers to lift pigment for the white areas, and colored back into places to define the darker shapes. I used both kneaded eraser and a white plastic eraser stick.

In my previous post I had also asked for ideas for a title. You all gave me wonderful suggestions that inspired me to think more about the energy and movement. Which led me to Water Dance for its title.

Water Dance

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

7.5 x 9.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

 

I have also added a page to this blog, Works in Series. Here I have put together my recent colored pencil pieces into two series, Finding Water, and Shaped By Water. To me, they all seem to make much more sense when seen together.

Sketchbook Tuesday - New watercolor pencils

I received an early holiday gift, a set of 12 Prismacolor watercolor pencils. It has been a little while since I worked with watercolor pencils, and the ones I have are not Prismacolor brand, so I got this new set out and gave them a whirl. First I made the color chart shown below in the back of my sketch journal. What I immediately liked about these was the way they laid down on the paper. Very creamy and smooth, just like you'd expect from Prismacolors. They did dissolve nicely when touched with a water brush. I also played around with them sketching Christmas tree ornaments last evening. I discovered that the black is very intense and that drawing the snow man in graphite first was a bad idea. To brighten him up I went back in with a white gel pen, which I also used in a few other places on the other ornament sketches. And a little brown Micron pen too.

The range of colors in the set of 12 is okay. I love that dark umber and the Copenhagen blue. I can see replacing a couple of the others down the line though, if I continue to use these for sketching. I do like that every pencil mark doesn't wash away, leaving some saturated linear elements here and there. And again, I loved the creamy, soft feel of drawing with these. All in all, I believe I could have some fun with this set!

Stream - finished!

Stream

colored pencil on Rising Museum Board

7.5 x 9.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Betcha thought I'd never finish this one! Well, I have come to a stopping place and I am ready, more than ready, to move on. I must admit, that I haven't worked very consistently on this piece. More about that later. But I do feel the need to take a break from drawing water images for a bit. I've been thinking about graphite, trees, and snow. We'll see.

The thing about not working consistently is really due to a number of factors. One is that I have been more interested in just working in my sketchbooks these days. Another issue is that homeschooling kiddo has been taking more time this year. Her lessons require more time for her to do and more input from me. The realization that 7th grade is almost 8th grade, which is almost high school (yikes!), and skills need to be mastered, topics explored more deeply, and will we ever find success with a foreign language program? Then there's all of the other stuff I have been enjoying. Like helping Kiddo learn to cook, and working with her on her crocheting. All of this is probably one reason why a sketchbook format is more appealing for me now. Yet I do have lots of ideas I want to try, like what I mentioned above. I could easily fill several more hours each day.

One more thing about this drawing. .  . I am not entirely satisfied with my uninspired choice for the title. Any ideas would be most welcome!

(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 

Sketchbook Tuesday - Poinsettia blossom

Last weekend, I played around with trying to capture a blossom of our annual poinsettia plant in watercolor. Those reds were not so easy to match. At times more orange, then pink in places, it seemed they were changing hue while I sketched. But sketching a poinsettia is something I have done in my sketch journals consistently for the past few years. Gets me in the holiday mood every time.

(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