Sunday, December 27, 2009

Spoonbills painting work in progress


A small preview of the current work on the easel. I've reworked the background and started to paint in the top bird. I appologize for the small size but I'll post a larger image on my next update.

Cat drawing-colored pencil on drafting film

Well this is my first attempt at using Mylar as a surface and I'm pleased with the results. However, not many layers of colored pencil can be added to this "paper" but the richness of the colors is achieved much more quickly.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Law enforcement artwork commission


Here's a rough mock-up preview of my next commission drawing for the US Pentagon, Police K-9 Explosives Detection Unit to be done in colored pencil. The three dogs featured on this drawing include a Malinois, a German Shepherd/Malinois cross and a black Labrador retriever.

Watch for updates as I start to work in this custom artwork design that will be used as a logo for t-shirts and prints.

Cat Portrait work in progress

I'm definetely having fun with my colored pencils on drafting film. It is almost unbelievable how smoothly the colors glide on the paper. Now, if I can only refine my technique a little...

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Wishing You All A Very Merry Christmas!!

I'd like to take a moment to wish all my followers a safe and happy Holiday Season. Party and be Merry and make sure to rest too so that when all this is over, you are not all too tired to paint or draw!!
Cheers,
Colette

Drafting film divine!

Many months ago, my brother who works for an engineering firm had given me a sample of drafting film and after seeing such beautiful results from fellow artists, I decided to finally try it. Oh, my goodness I can't believe how smooth and silky the pencils glide on this paper! I'm still experimenting and just now realized that I might have worked on the wrong side of the film but the results are still worth the try! I absolutely love it and will definitely be purchasing more of this paper. Oh, how I love my colored pencils now!!

Friday, December 18, 2009

A new bird painting on the easel!

pastel on sandpaper, size 8.5" x 11"

After much contemplation and sifting through the hundreds of photos taken from our trip to Florida, it was decided that this was the next composition I was to attempt to paint (with some changes to the ref photo).

These birds were photographed at Disney's Animal Kingdom and I believe they are of two different species of spoonbills; the white spoonbill and the pink/roseate spoonbill (immature).

I am hoping this will be one of my Christmas holiday projects to help me unwind during the busy holiday season (argh!). I will also be working on my next colored pencil commission for the US Pentagon Police K-9 Explosions Detection Unit . I'll be unveiling the mock-up of that piece shortly!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

White tailed doe painting-"Treading Ever-So-Lightly"

I know I could probably improve on the foliage of this painting but I just have no more umph left for it so it will have to do! I need to move on to another painting but just had to finish this one first. Not that I rushed it or anything...

After scanning in multiple pieces and patch working the images together, I had to color correct the image slightly. I really toned down the bright yellow leaves near the deer's face which seemed to strong in the last update.

The previous update was taken with a digital camera and was overly adjusted for contrast. I find pastels so very difficult to match to a photograph or scan, due to the dust reflecting different amounts of light under varying light conditions. Perhaps this has more to do with the fact that I used a dark suede board or maybe even the properties of the suede itself, I don't know.

Oh well, the image above seems pretty close to the actual painting...until you place the painting in a bright room, where it really brightens up considerably! Eeech.

There is an explanation on my website regarding the title for this piece. If you are interested, follow here: http://www.colettetheriault.com/descriptions/paint1description/White_tail_deer.php
and scroll down the page.

Tomorrow I will be framing my deer painting at last!

My dear, deer Painting back on the easel!


Oh, I am soooo excited to be back at work on this white tail deer painting! Finally got the Christmas tree and decorations out, lots of prepared meals and deserts in the freezer, most of the gifts under the tree, all the Christmas portrait commissions have been completed and shipped....now time to relax!

I have a few more touch ups I want to do before calling this one done.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Shipping unframed pastel paintings 101

Not much is available on the internet regarding how to ship these more delicate pieces of artwork and so I thought I'd post some information about how I pack my pastel paintings for shipping. I would like to thank Roberta Baer for sharing her idea of the special box used for transporting and shipping pastel paintings. She is an amazing pastelist who's blog I follow at http://www.robybaer.blogspot.com/.

First, I build what I call a "floater box" (thanks Roby!). When they say a picture is worth a thousand words, this is exactly what they mean! Click on the image for a more detailed view of the box construction.



Here, I used a combination of cardboard and foam core "spacers" and hot glue to build the box. I would not normally use cardboard but for this larger piece, it was necessary due to lack of larger foam core pieces in my studio.

This type of box allows for a space or gap on the front of the pastel painting so that nothing touches it's delicate surface. In essence, the painting "floats" in the box, having only the backing as a support. Note that the pastel painting is mounted onto a slightly larger foam core board with artists' tape. The painting/mounting board then slides in the gap created by the slits of foamcore that have been hotglued together.

I add an extra strip of foam core at each end of the box that fits inside the front/back cardboard pieces. This helps support the ends so that they don't collapse (note white strip beside box below).

I write instructions on the box on how to proceed to open and slide the painting out of the box. The box is opened right side up and at one end where a pull tab is attached the the backing of the pastel painting.



The "floater box" is then packed in a secondary shipping box for added security. Here, I've re-inforced the edges of the box with foam core to make it more sturdy. In this case, I was lucky that the "floater box" fit perfectly snug in the shipping box. Otherwise, place crumbled-up newsprint to fill the gaps around the "floater box" so that it does not move around inside the larger shipping box.



I make sure to mark the box with FRAGILE on all sides.

I hope this helps fellow pastelist with the dilema of shipping or transporting unframed pastel artwork, or at best, provide a cheaper alternative method.



Below is an example of a box I built using 100% foam board:




Keep on painting!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Beach Dog Painting commission finished!

Ooo hoo, I was able to complete the water today on this pastel painting! The client is quite pleased with it and so am I. Now, to the daunting task of carefully packing this precious cargo for shipping...

Thursday, December 10, 2009

More waves and splashing water


Slowly but surely the waves are starting to appear, hugging the soft beach sand. I must say, the most challenging aspect of this piece is definitely all the water surrounding this dog, especially the area around the dog's feet. I am finding it virtually impossible to reproduce the water exactly like on the reference photograph, nevertheless, I hope to achieve a good likeness of the waves coming on shore and the splashes of water and sand under the dog's feet.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Shih Tzu dog portait in pastel

"Show Girl" (Brooke)
Size 8.5"x11", pastel on archival suede board

I added the finished touches to this Christmas gift portrait today and it is now ready to be framed and wrapped. I had it tucked away and almost forgot about it until I cleaned out one of my work tables and found it on my to-do-later pile.

Friday, December 4, 2009

More pastel layers on this dog painting...


It seems I haven't posted an update of this dog portrait for a while. The progression is slow due to the many layers and blending of pastel on the white sand paper being somewhat time consuming. I usually like to use colored paper when working with pastels and end up choosing a paper with the base color that is predominant in a painting to cut back on pastel application.
The sandpaper used for this pastel painting is Wallis museum archival grade which is very fine and allows for up to 25 layers of pastel.