Blog

 

It's January 22, 2021 and it is time to get back to work. Between the holidays, the elections, the pandemic and add in winter blues, it has been a bit of a struggle getting into my studio to create. I fall into my pattern of cooking, baking, cleaning and organizing. The last two at least put me in my studio. 

 

Back to basics is a good place to start, to clear your head. I organized pencils, pastel pencils, charcoal pencils and sharpen them so they are ready for a new project. I pull out reference photos, figure out what medium will work best for the image and will it go on paper or another sub-straight.  I even did a little graphite pencil test because every brand produces slightly different strength in tone. Plus, I will be teaching with Common Ground on Hill this summer and one of the classes will focus on drawing with different mediums. This helped me with future demonstration on line, hardness, softness of graphite pencils. More on that later.  

 

On the easel, a zebra, using pastel on coffee stained handmade paper. I pull my pastel pencils and keep them to the side, that way no confusion with what colors are pulled in the layering process. After the paper is stained, rinsed, dried, mounted on a secure surface, the drawing begins. Once the sketch is in place, begin to look at the darks, block in the shades/shadows using blues and purples. Continue to build the darks with browns, reds, magenta, after all, black is all colors mixed together. I do use a HB charcoal pencils to add line work in the coat of the zebra. The lights are not so much white, as a blend of soft creams, tans, blues and sometimes other reflected colors. Since, "Hope" is my key word for this month, hopefully will have the zebra done before February.  

 

 Many galleries and shows will continue to be online. Better to be safe this year as we are hopeful to get this virus under control. I have several possible shows coming up over the next few months. Waiting to hear if I got into the shows and what works will be committed to those exhibits. After I get confirmation, my plan is to set up some sales online, and on my website. Once you commit a work to a show, it is out of commission till that show is over, or hopefully sold. So, the more shows I have work in, the lower the inventory gets. Which is a good thing, sales are good but having something to look forward to helps keep me creating. Lots of new ideas, just need to put in the work! 

 

Take care, continue to mask up and stay safe inn 2021! linda hp

 

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