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Monday, January 30, 2012

New Pencils That Are Like Coming Home - Derwent Tinted Charcoal

Many years ago an artist friend of mine, Sharon L Bell of Windom, TX, gave me a stubby charcoal pencil and a much weathered paper blending stump. And she sent me on my way.  I had it in my head that there might be an artist hiding inside of me.  So charcoal was my first experience and first love in the world of drawing and pencil art.  I was inspired by Clare Turlay Newberry who often drew in charcoal and who, like me, loved to draw a beautiful cat.


With time I moved on into paint, graphite pencils, and colored pencils of many different kinds.  As I got busy I left my charcoal pencil sitting alone in the drawer for a long time.

Three times each year my local students and I order supplies.  Each time I order some new colors or I try a completely new set of pencils to feed my addiction to pencils.  I've looked at the Derwent tinted charcoal several times.  But I really thought they were either just like a muted soft pastel or just another version of the graphitint pencils.  However, after reading a favorable review about them, I decided to add the tinted charcoal to my order this time.

Well, when the package arrived I sat right down and opened them and began to doodle.  Oh my!  About 20 seconds into it I knew I was in love with these pencils.  They go on very smoothly. And the colors!  Oh what beautiful colors they are!  These charcoal pencils were like coming home to me - only better.  I remembered those early days with that stubby charcoal and how much I enjoyed it.  As I marveled at the beautiful colors Derwent had created I began to wonder just what I could draw that would do them justice.  One of the fun things about these charcoal pencils is that you can set them with water.  So, when I had the pupil of this cat done, I could set it and then as I worked on the rest of the eye, the pupil did not bleed onto the colors.  How cool is that?!  And unlike the graphitint, who get much more intense when water is added, these do not change in appearance with the water.

This feline face was created with the Derwent tinted charcoal pencils on Strathmore 400 series vellum bristol board.

I will be going today to my students and encouraging them to purchase the Derwent tinted charcoal pencils.  They will love them too!

Want to learn more about drawing and creating your own pencil art?  Try out my online pencil art learning community at Wind and Honey Classes  We are having a great time there and my students are progressing so well.




Wind and Honey Creations

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Valentine For You - Drawing Demonstration

I've created another youtube drawing demo with Valentine's Day in mind.  This drawing of a squirrel holding a gifted heart could be used for a gift tag, to make a special card for a loved one, or it could simply be matted and framed.  I've included the outline here if you would like to try your hand at it.   I hope you have lots of fun with him.  I would love it if you would share how you use him here.  If you post it on your blog, be sure and leave the link so we can see.

If you enjoy drawing and would like to learn more, check out my online drawing lessons at Wind and Honey Classes.  I teach interactive online video classes.  We are having a great time there. 

I used Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils for this drawing.



Wind and Honey Creations

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Artful Gathering 2012 - Session Two

This summer Artful Gathering will blossom into not one but two wonderful sessions of classes, workshops, and creative fun. I have already shared with you what I will be teaching in session one. In session two I will be giving a workshop on an animal portrait. The subject will be a beautiful Barn Owl. And we will accomplish this portrait using a simple graphite pencil and a touch of Derwent graphitint pencil. This owl portrait was fun to create and will be even more fun to teach I will walk you through one step at a time. You will love drawing him. This workshop entitled A Portrait of Beauty and Wisdom and it is an intermediate to advanced class.





Wind and Honey Creations

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