poppy project

poppy project, approx. 5" x 7", coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper
copyright Teresa Mallen

 

Here is a photo of my finished poppy. (The background looks uneven in this compressed version of the photo. In reality the background has been left as the white of the paper.)

 

 In a few weeks, this poppy will be available on-line for anyone and everyone to download. The project will include a line drawing you can trace onto your own paper and there will be palette suggestions as well as directions on how to colour your own version of this flower.

 

 This project will be a terrific way for coloured pencil newbies to try the medium, to get colouring right away and to get immediate results.

 

For someone already experienced in using coloured pencils, this will be something fun to work on in between your own drawings.

 

 



peony and poppy, both coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper, copyright Teresa Mallen

I placed the poppy next to my latest peony petal piece and snapped a pic. I know some people are skeptical about the range of values you can get with cps. I chose to use much darker values in the poppy and yet I didn't have to burnish. All sorts of things are possible with coloured pencils!

 

Once the project is ready for downloading, I will be letting you know here, on Facebook and in my newsletter...so I am pretty sure you won't miss the announcement. :-) I can't wait to see what everyone creates...send me some pics please!

supernovas and leading edges

day lily, coloured pencil on Stonehenge, copyright Teresa Mallen

 

Lovely lilies are opening all over the place, yellow ones, deep burgundy ones and of course orange ones - as in the Day Lily above. Lilies are super low maintenance as well as pretty, which is fabulous.

 

I have several books on the go right now and one is by Danielle Laporte called the Fire Starter Sessions. Session 1 has us declaring our super-powers - as in "competency is for suckers". :-)

 

Danielle asks:

 

• "Would you rather be sufficient or masterful?"
• "Would you rather be bright or a freaking supernova?
• "Would you rather be well-rounded or on your own leading edge?"

 

Well gee, I'll go with masterful, hum, a leading edge sounds kind of scary (makes me think of a ledge not an edge and I have a fear of falling) and I would have settled for bright cause that sounds rather perky and shiny but wait...

 

I can choose to be a freaking supernova?

 

Well sign me up for that! That sounds super juicy (and a bit blinding and explosive!)

 

Now what sort of art does a supernova create? :-)

 

How about you, are you well rounded, bright and sufficient or are you the super-power options?

 

love flowers or hate them?

tulip, coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper, 8 3/4" x 6", copyright Teresa Mallen

Ah to be famous...and to have your words live on.

 

Georgia O'Keeffe is quoted as saying "I hate flowers. I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move."

 

Was she being serious or was this taken out of context? After reading biographies of Georgia and reading some of her letters that have been published since her death, I think she was a woman who enjoyed sparking a bit of controversy.

 

As well, she would tire of expectations and assumptions about her work and she struggled to be understood. She insisted that her famous flower images were not created with the sexual messages that were attributed to them. It seems no one listened. She turned to other subject matter...

 

Whether she hated flowers or loved them, I for one am glad she painted them.

 

I can't imagine a world without flowers so for the record, I draw them because I get great pleasure from their beauty.

 

 

more peony petals...

Guess what? I am working on another peony petal piece! Big surprise right? :-)

The above photo obviously shows the piece as a work in progress. It is about 8.5" x 8.5", so not big, but not a mini either and it is cps on Stonehenge paper. I know the square format is somewhat frowned upon but I don't bother too much with convention, if I like the composition then I blaze ahead. Like my other petal pieces, this has an abstract feel to it. I am drawn to the curves and shapes and really I could be drawing anything that had those shapes. It simply happens that peony petals give me this look and fortunately my flower garden has several varieties for me to work from. Well, of course in February in Ottawa Canada, I am working from photo references. It will be four months before the peonies are up and blowing in the breeze. 

Oh dear...I didn't get very far with my cloud piece (on the primed board, mentioned a few posts back). I gave it about five or ten minutes, felt very bored so it now sits on a table, patiently waiting for me to get re-inspired.

I have abandoned a couple of pieces this winter and I like that. I am determined to continue to build a cohesive, consistent body of work and anything that is not turning out to be my best quality I ditch and work that doesn't build my brand is also not worth my time right now. A series of cloud pieces is still a possibility but for now I am looking forward to doing those lovely Granny Smith apples next.

It has been quite mild here this winter but the temperatures are to drop tonight and over the weekend. Time to bring more wood inside for some roaring fires! I like to bake bread on weekends and make hearty stews. Winter days seem suited for such pursuits. I have an old wooden chair I wish to sand and repaint which I hope to start tomorrow and my fireside reading shall be a gardening book. Have a great weekend everyone and stay warm!

minis and miniature art

Blue Blooded mini, copyright Teresa Mallen, coloured pencil on colourfix paper, 6" w x 2 3/4" h

Here are some minis I have been working on this past week. The piece above and the one below are approximately six inches wide by three inches wide. Both are done in coloured pencil on colourfix paper. I had a lot of fun doing these. If you have been following my blog for a while, the mini above might look a bit familiar. It was inspired by my work entitled  Blue Blooded.

Mini # 2, copyright Teresa Mallen, coloured pencil on colourfix paper, 6 1/2 " w x 3" h

My motivation to create some smaller works started last fall. Some of you might recall that I was working with ink and cps and I was dashing off small works of feathers and fruit and such. I eventually got a bit bored with this so I stopped.

Then last November, I purchased the drawing magazine pictured on the left. The cp portrait on the cover is the art of Kerry Brooks. I was surprised to learn that Kerry not only works quite big but she has also done very detailed, smaller works (3" x 4" for example). 

The seeds of inspiration were sown and I soon started pondering doing some cp minis (as I call them). I must confess previously having an aversion to working small simply because I am not that keen on squishing tons of detail into a tiny area, and well, I like detail! But hey, when the muse beckons... :-)

Mini Rose #1, copyright Teresa Mallen
4  3/4" w x 3  3/4" h, coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper

Miniature Art is a very interesting genre. I find it fascinating that people use magnifying glasses in order to place teeny, tiny brush strokes on intricate originals the size of postage stamps. There are miniature art societies in countries all around the globe.

Of course there was the eruption of ATCs (2.5 x 3.5 inches) onto the art scene a few years back. Millions of artist trading cards were created and swapped. Later many artists transitioned into ACEOs (art cards,editions and orginals), selling these art cards during the Daily Painter craze. I saw an enormous amount of bad art back then as people jumped on the bandwagon of creating quickly and making sales. I am glad this fad seems to be over. I am not knocking the Daily Painters out there, the ones still standing are doing excellent work, just saying I had a thing about those ATCs... :-)

So, to be clear, my intent is not to create miniatures in the formal sense of the word and I am not working ATC size nor am I considering these ACEOs.

Mini Rose # 2, copyright Teresa Mallen
3 3/4" w x 3 1/4 " h, coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper

The roses are in the four inch by three inch range.

When more have been completed, I shall create a sales gallery. These minis shall be offered up for sale matted and unframed so shipping shall be nice and easy. I will of course post about that development when it happens.

For now I am hoping to get some good photo references on those apples I mentioned in a previous post (need a sunny day for good shadows) and in the meantime, I have started a new peony petals piece - another one for the series!