2024 - Whats Your Point? Thread… New- Exploring The World Thru Pencil Media

I can't tell you how THRILLED I am that you've started a Pencil thread! YOU got me hooked on using colored pencils back in 2020, the beginning of our friendship. I have always been amazed at how "photo-realistically" I work in pencil, as opposed to how I paint. I have been finding ways to integrate that need for a less detailed look by doing some colored pencil work on drafting film, which allows me to create a soft-focus abstract background using watercolor pencil - such fun! Here's one of my earliest efforts, where you coached me through how to burnish colors with other colors, and it's fitting for this season! I'll share more soon!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/poinsettia-in-orange-red-conni-schaftenaar.html

OH MY!…such a Beauty, and yes, it is seasonal. I was so impressed at how easily and masterfully you took to pencilwork! This is such an exciting walk thru memory lane of our meeting thru our intershares over media and processes…I loved the watercolour batikwork you do…Appleblossoms is still my all time FAV of favs!! …and I was just trying new media on the advent of toxicities to acrylic resins glazes etc. Sadly, I never took to batik like you took to pencil…lol.

Below, I sent you a WIP of this last week. Did you catch my final iteration of my college roomie’s birthday present for this year? I just finished posting… It’s a colour pencil with some metallic accents for MAGIC! …ya…ta…ta! Thanks for kicking off my new thread here in our group! Now back to moving the archived closures down…:-))

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/moonlit-garden-birthday-laurel-adams.html

Thanks for sharing the final of the birthday gift for your friend, Laurel - just visited it and left some love! Meanwhile, I'll share another of my early colored pencil pieces that you coached me through - remember me trying to learn how to both do "continuous drawing" AND learning how to do rain drops! Yikes! This one is colored pencil for the flower and alcohol ink for the abstract background!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/purple-blue-iris-with-rain-drops-and-wild-columbine-conni-schaftenaar.html

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!! It is SUNDAY, New Years Eve and I wish to thank everyone Moderators and Members for a WONDERful 2023…Let’s make 2024 an even more interesting time sharing our aesthetics in The BUZzz!
The moderator thread images look SOooo BEAUTIFUL! Please, I would love to feature the Moderator topic thread 2024 images in feature (even re-feature) on the homepage if you care to. Thanks so much!

Conni, I am SOOOoo excited…thank you for jumping in and sharing these beauties…I will send some comment love in just a few! …gorgeous , and…the memories!

thanks, Laurel, so looking forward to seeing others join in this thread! Happy New Year!

Conni, I gushed on your entries and can’t wait for more to follow! Thank you, thankyou, THANK YOU for reminding me of all the challenges we helped each other thru, laughing and having our weekly PLAY dates! This year has not been so much play but I hope Rick’s currently stable picture will allow us to do more of that! I am going to add to the thread intro that mixing Pencil media is TOTALLY encouraged…you know I’m thinking of your robin with the fabulous negative space details…YES!

Oh, yeah, Laurel, playing with colored pencil on drafting film is so much fun AND it allows you to do fun things with activated watercolor pencil to make an abstract background! I'll post the robin you mention here!

To get the background, I would wet the watercolor pencil and smear some of the color down, then use a brush and more water to spread it, make it run and play on the acetate surface of the drafting film (which is like plastic). When I had an area the way I wanted it, I moved on to another area. And a cool thing about this is that the central image in colored pencil is impervious to being disturbed by painting around it, because the wax base of the colored pencil (or oil, if you use a colored pencil with an oil binder) resists the water and you can paint right up next to the colored pencil work!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/are-you-my-mom-baby-robin-out-of-the-nest-conni-schaftenaar.html

Thanks for submitting this Conni…I gushed it’s so beautiful.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sunny-days-of-summer-angela-davies.html

So glad to see this colored pencil thread for 2024. You will inspire me to get them out. This is one of my older (only colored pencil) drawings/paintings. It was done in Prismacolor also, one of my favorite mediums Laurel and I have several works in which I use ink as well as colored pencil. I am glad to see that a colored pencil work can be considered a painting in some circumstances. I agree that when it covers the whole paper it could be considered as such. However, on most of my descriptions on FAA I have designated colored pencil works as drawings. I was a bit confused about what to do regarding the designation. Glad you brought it up.

Conni, loved your shares above and went over to leave some love~ Laurel, such a beautiful floral work in your thread announcement! The colors are brilliant!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/feeling-tropical-angela-davies.html

The passing of the iconic Jimmy Buffett inspired this colored pencil work. I usually like more subtle color, but his music inspired some tropical colors, now in January they are looking great to me again. This is also a Prismacolor Premier work, and I have a question for others who use blending pencils, I generally use a white blending pencil but on this work, I bought a new style which seemed to have alcohol base in it. Worked well, but with only one drawing was completely depleted. Rather expensive. I always seem to go through blending pencils rather quickly of the Prismacolor type also. Anything new out there for blending that you may like?

thanks for your lovely comments on my work, Angela, and I love your new profile icon, too - colorful scarf! fun to see that you've done some CP work, too, have visited and left some love!

Dear Angela, thank you SOoo much for sharing your Colour Pencil work! (I am next off to comment love on them). I love that you dabble in many media as do I and many other artists whose works I admire. Thank you for your kindness to my bearded iris…she was an early colour pencil work that convinced me I could move…thru…my mourning that I was no longer able to paint in acrylics.
As for alcohol based and traditional burnishing tools, I have not liked the blend results. I consulted my dear Sarah Batalka about burnishing and she shared that she only burnishes colour pencil with another colour pencil! AHA!…that was where she maintained her pigment and light intensity!! I exclusively use that method as well. Another point of my interest is the substrate…I vary between a medium-heavy weight of Bristol vellum (white or black) and Duralar, a translucent drafting film that allows the buttery texture of colour pencil to …BEcome…; however, it is not error friendly because overworking either lifts the pencil layers and clumps or “scrapes it fairly clean. In either case, reapplication doesn’t work well because it has lost its “tooth-feel”. Well, that’s the only way I can describe it…it is too smooth thereafter to reapply colour to suit my taste. Conni introduced me to duralar…her Robin with its amazing negative space watercolour mixed media PLAY…is a FUN and Masterful result of knowing duralar.
I am SO excited…Ladies we are OFF to such a roaring start! YAY!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/shall-we-go-down-the-rabbit-hole-angela-davies.html

This is a colored pencil, Prismacolor Premier, and ink drawing, a farewell to the Year of the Rabbit, as we welcome 2024, Year of the Dragon. Lots of new technology to adjust to, shall we hide in our den or come out and play. I think we must play!

Laurel, thanks for the tips on burnishing tools. I agree the alcolhol based burnishing pencils work fast, but you do lose tooth or texture and sometimes detail also, plus they do not last very long at all. I think I will stick to my white blending pencils. The only problem is how fast I go through them and don't want to buy a new set of pencils to get one burnishing pencil. Have you found a good place to get just a single burnishing pencil or pencils other than online. I occasionally need one in a hurry and would love to pick one up quickly when on a project.

Conni, thanks for the compliment on the scarf, a backstory there, I was asked to volunteer for a historical barn tour to raise money for historic barns in our area after participating in a local barn art show two years ago. We all had to wear a red bandanna. Voila, my picture icon for the new year. Hoping it will inspire me to do another barn painting or drawing, perhaps in colored pencil this time! :)

Fun to know how you came to have the red scarf, Angela - a barn painting using colored pencil would be fun!

On the subject of blending and burnishing, on my last work, which I will post below, I used a gamsol blending solution. I had also been reading voraciously about various methods to blend colored pencil work, watching YouTube videos on various methods, and realized that one problem I had had was doing ANY burnishing too early in the work. You can use blending techniques, laying color over color, but NOT burnishing, meaning pressing harder, which lessens the risk of crushing the tooth of the paper too soon, resulting in color rolling up when burnishing. This happens easier on the Duralar or drafting film than on paper (the color rolling up). But if you burnish an area too soon on paper, then you've crushed the tooth and it's nearly impossible to add more color if you haven't gotten it where you need it to be. The gamsol solution helps to 'blend' the color into the paper (eliminating those little white flecks, which are from the paper texture) but doesn't flatten the tooth, so additional layers of color can be added. I had done a colored pencil drawing of two black Percheron geldings that belong to a friend of mine early in 2023, it turned out "OK", but I wasn't happy with some of the blending because I had actually "burnished" in the blending stage of laying color over color, didn't get all the white of the paper covered as well as it could have been. I have this image on my gallery and will share it as "example 1" below. The second version is the same image, done by laying down several layers of color very lightly, no burnishing involved, and then using gamsol to blend it and fill in those white paper flecks, then more color added over many of those areas. That is "example 2" below - I think you can see the difference in the smoothness of the blends between each of these works.

Example 1 - solely blended/burnished with colored pencil, burnished probably too soon in the process:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/ace-and-max-the-percheron-boys-conni-schaftenaar.html

Example 2 - several layers of pencil laid down, blended with gamsol using a small filbert brush, then more CP, then burnished - some of the color blends are still not as smooth as I would have liked, but more satisfied with the overall look of this as my first work using blending solution:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/ace-and-max-the-percheron-boys-2-conni-schaftenaar.html

I will continue to work on finessing my process of laying down the color before burnishing, because, like Laurel, I think Sarah Batalka's colored pencil work is phenomenal and a goal to strive for!

Conni, thanks for the beautiful examples above. and for the information on burnishing/blending. I do always save my burnishing until completely finished with layering color for the reasons you mentioned. The one advantage in the burnishing pencil with an alcohol base I mentioned above, is that you do not need to press hard at all so no damage to the paper. However it is almost too easy and can smear a bit so if you do not want to lose detail lines is not a good fit.

Angela, yes, I have toyed with an alcohol blending tool, also. I found using the gamsol and a small brush to be more easily controlled, at least for me!

Dear Angela and Conni…loved the burnishing tips…the scarf!! Yes…a CP PAINTING OF A BARN perhaps with a barn art mandala of different scarves would be a hoot! Angela send me your address by FAA EMAIL and I’ll send you all of my myriad burnishing tools …either new or gently used…not a fit for Laurelland! Off to circle back for comment love…Angela, clever use of minimal pencil palette and carrying up the ?smalt blue into the bunnies!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/an-invitation-to-spring-from-my-house-to-yours-angela-davies.html#comment56802582

I am already longing for spring and our first snow on Jan 6th just melted. This drawing has the mood of spring and is one of my favorite Prismacolor premier pencil drawings/paintings.

Angela, I love your colour pencil renderings! SOooo glad to see them revitalized here in this thread…I comment loved on your bluebirds…such a beautiful reminder thru winter remnants that Spring is really just around the corner! Thank you for all you do for me/us all in the BUZzz!

It is with GREAT EXCITEMENT that I post this gratitude here in the BUZzz…in the HEALing thread…18 months later from my rendering on my husband’s end stage cancer diagnosis: As of his PET scan reading today (synchronistically, the anniversary of his mom’s passing and my mom’s 98th birthday) , he is in FULL REMISSION in his bladder and all metastatic sites! …thank you everyone for healing and wellness intentions! I/we both believe in the Power of prayerful intention. His immunotherapy is working!
I was once told, when there is breath, there is hope!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/white-lightning-neurographic-art-laurel-adams.html

I am SOOOOOOOO excited for you and Rick, Laurel - what fantastic news! Miracles DO happen - you have been blessed! XOXOXOXO!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/queen-of-spring-angela-davies.html

A flower of spring to celebrate your good news Laurel, one of my personal fave colored pencil drawings~

Sweet tulip drawing, Angela!

Dear Angela, thank you for the beautiful rendering in celebration…as you know, no celebration comes without lots of strings…please keep those positive vibes coming. I sent this beauty some comment love.

CALLING ALL PENCIL ARTISTS,!!

There are MANY amazing COLOUR PENCIL, WATERCOLOUR PENCIL, GRAPHITE PENCIL artists In our group…this is YOUR OPPORTUNITY to get some intershare!

Sorry I have been absent from this thread! Here's a golden honeybee on a flower, done in colored pencil on duralar:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/go-for-the-gold-honey-bee-conni-schaftenaar.html

Thanks Conni for supporting this NEW thread. I left some comment love on this beauty as I still marvel at how quickly you mastered pencil techniques! I so appreciate all you do for me, for us all in The BUZzz!

Thanks Conni for expressing interest in this NEW thread designed to give pencil artists more exposure and a venue to address favorite substrates, pencil brands and techniques. Below is a work-in-process offered in the hopes of attracting fellow artists to “try their hand” at one of their own humbly begun renderings which often turn into a final “pencil painting” of great beauty. Already, one sees the “emergence” of Spring thru the crocuses…emissaries of Spring…scattered in random lawn plantings for another years blooming delight! We are fortunate to have several MASTER pencil artists in the BUZzz …Join me?

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/emergence-laurel-adams.html

A fabulous WIP, Laurel, I really love those little flowers! visited and left some LOVE!

Thanks Conni…I saw that! The trick is carving out the time to revisit this Spring tangle which is tugging at my grassy heArt strings.

I may leave this colour pencil unfinished….still “emerging”…as for this discussion, does it count if I digitally finished it??? Thoughts?

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/blitz-of-spring-laurel-adams.html

I think it is up to you, Laurel, whether you want to finish the colored pencil portion of this piece. Given that you have CP pieces you are converting to digital, you may find that you want to post both! But see where the muse leads you . . .

My muse is straining at the bit but there are distractions on my horizon and so, many paintings are being painted in my minds eye!… Unlike you who are comfortable holding multiple projects in glorious simultaneity, I am slowly plodding ..thru these days, lol. When I get back, however,…I hope to have a ya-ta-ta moment!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/dance-of-the-orbs-angela-davies.html

I have been intrigued by calla lilies lately, just had to try some in colored pencil, and they took me on a fanciful journey into the world of orbs.

Laurel, loved your beautiful pencil painting in both of it's stages. I used some digital touches to brighten the colors in my pencil drawing, not always necessary, but I could not get the actual colors I was striving for when I started the work. I usually work with Prismacolor Premier but this was done with a different set of pencils. I like them better for subtle colors, but I eventually wanted more depth of color in the work.

love your callas, Angela! For depth of subtle color, you may want to experiment with the TriTone pencils - you can get some lovely, lovely effects! you can get a 12 set or a 24 set - I absolutely love them, in addition to my Prismacolors! both size sets available here, but also check out Blick and Jerry's, just to compare pricing.

https://www.amazon.com/Koh-I-Noor-Tri-Tone-Multi-Colored-Blister-Carded-FA33TIN12BC/dp/B008PWOOXO

Thanks so much for the suggestion on pencils Conni! I will check those out!!

let us know what you think once you try them! I originally got a set of 12, loved them so much I ordered the set of 24, which has the original 12, plus 12 more, so now I have duplicates of 12 of them. I highly recommend just jumping into the set of 24 right away, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Angela, your callas and orbs are GLORIOUS!…I love your exploration into the orb phenomenon! Enjoy your features tonight of them.
As for Conni’s comments, the tritone colour pencils she introduced me to are truly awesome…I got the 24 set and was not disappointed either. I like mixing them and my Prismacolour pencils together. I’m working on a painting for a hired helper turned friend…she loves flowers and wanted a laurelland take on her birth month flower and those of her children. It’s already in process …a slow go with all that’s going on of late but creating beauty in the form of flowers is such a welcomed reprieve from thought.

Conni, thanks so much for adding the reminder to consider the media addition of Tritone pencils! I love having them at the ready for blending and burnishing.

Conni, I will definitely let you know how I like the Tritone pencils, plan to order soon. I think you are right to get the 24 set, always nice to have the extra color options. Laurel, thanks for the wonderful comments on my callas and orbs as well as the awesome features! :) Looking forward to seeing your new birth month flower commissions! A great idea, think I will mull on that theme! :)

Dear Angela, your wish is my command…I’ve uploaded a NFS in process piece for you to see …”the Plan”. When Rick became ill in 2022, I hired a private maid service on friends’ recommendations and the woman who owns the business has become a friend ensuring Rick’s spaces are nothing short of antiseptically clean. He has not had any infections and I owe her a debt of gratitude that no stipend could repay. She likes my work and asked if she could commission a painting. I plan to have it finished before mom’s day for a SPECIAL GIFT to her for all she does for us. SHhhh, she doesn’t know that. She checks its progress and tears up to see its development…much like I do when everything sparkles on Tuesdays. I make sure there’s something fresh baking for them and try to spoil them like they spoil us. I couldn’t tend to as much as I accomplish for Rick without them. These are her mums and the lilies of the valley/holly berries are her children’s birth month flowers. There is still SO much to do as it is larger than I usually paint. It’s a 17x11 …imagine deep purples and Teals embracing the edges as love Light emanates from beneath her flowers and her “stems”! Well, that’s what I am focused on holding for her..:-)

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/pointing-to-the-finish-line-laurel-adams.html?newartwork=true
The WIP has been deleted so this link is no longer viable.

What a beautiful work of art Laurel!! I can see why she is already excited to see it even in the early stages. beautiful color and details!

Angela, I will be very excited to see what you do with the Tritone pencils and what you think of them!

Laurel, the WIP of your gift for your helper/friend is stunning, have visited and left some love! She is going to just love it!

Thank you both…got a lot done today…if I have some time tomorrow I will delete and repost the WIP…

And, so I did accomplish quite a bit…

The link has been deleted and is no longer viable.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/pointing-to-the-finish-line-2-laurel-adams.html?newartwork=true

I haven’t posted or dug out my pencil drawings but thankyou for the reminder Laurel of how versatile they can be and the effects created whether it is a drawing or painting. I have to say I really enjoy using Derwent graphitone pencils firstly for the difference in depths you can achieve and also you can apply water which alters the dimension of your work into watercolour. I have a petite drawing tucked away somewhere of a still life study of bark from the garden covered in moss… a simple subject but the pencils made amazing details. I tend to overlook the pencil all too often and I’m glad to read your post to rejoice them again..oh I’ll root out the drawings if I can find them to share with you all.

Beverly, WELCOME to this thread and I am SOooo excited you will be rooting out drawings to share…as for size, the diminutives are my favs. I like making groupings to flank my kitchen nook double window panel and the size constraints of the wall make 5”x7” renderings perfect! I run them either vertically, horizontally or a mix for fun and change them out seasonally! As for Derwent, I have the inks which, when water activated, give beautifully saturated (but at times grainy) effects. My fav watercolour pencils are the Raffiné ones…creamy, also beautiful for concentrated colour and translucent bleeds. Since I developed allergies to toxins in acrylic binders and no longer paint on canvas…sigh!… Watercolour became my favorite. Then other health issues nudged me into pencils and they are a wonderful foray into …”no-time” with The Flow. I can’t WAIT to see your pencilwork, pretty please!..:-). So glad you are in the BUZzz; I so love your work!


https://fineartamerica.com/featured/springfield-beverley-ismail.html

P.S., duplicate titles often cause issues for buyers…you may wish to slightly edit one of them?

A caution to everyone about changing titles on existing posted work - the title is the link throughout FAA - if you change an existing title, you will lose all links to group posts, features, contest participation, everything. If you come up with an idea for a better title or an alternate title or a seasonal title, just post the image again with that new title. I do agree with Laurel, however, that duplicate titles on works can be confusing, but perhaps you can, in any cases like that (say "Spring Flower"), make sure your description and key words are expanded and different.

This is something I did using, primarily, watercolor pencils, and did not activate them in all layers. If I remember right, I had used a WC pencil to put a base color down on the wood block and activated it. I was surprised that the activated color was quite different than what it was when put down dry, but activation helped to fill in the tooth of the paper. So I went over it again with dry pencils. I did that in a few areas on this drawing. Mostly, I blended by burnishing rather than activating with water.

This is one of three that I did featuring some of my beloved wooden kitchen utensils - the knife block, a stack of wooden bowls, and a container of wooden spoons and a meat mallet.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/wooden-knife-block-with-knives-and-steel-conni-schaftenaar.html

Many thanks, dear Conni for the information on title changes …I did not know that. Thank you for the beautiful share of your utensils rendering and its development; i especially loved the use of both wateracrivation and burnishing! No wonder it looks so much like wood!..:-). Your talent across the span of media is always a source of exploration/ playing with new techniques and FUN! Thanks for all you do for me/us all in the BUZzz, so appreciated.

I will rejoin the threads hopefully on the 13th. There is always so much to do before/after even the shortest vacation as this will be. Thank you all for your understanding!

thanks, Laurel, for your comments about my watercolor pencil piece! And, I hope you guys have a FABULOUS short vacation!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-blue-coop-angela-davies.html

Just finished this colored pencil work, have only done a rooster in watercolor in the past, was fun trying a small flock of chickens. This is primarily pencil with some slight digital touches done by hand. Conni enjoyed your tip on watercolor pencil as a base for pencil. I have not tried that yet, must give it a try.

nice job, Angela . . . I'm always curious about how people burnish work - do you use a burnisher? burnish with a different colored pencil? Use a blending solution? thanks!

Thanks Conni, this was burnished only using a white blending pencil. I have in the past tried using the blending pens which contain alcohol. They work fairly well but can only be used for about one painting as they dry up, so rather expensive to use in my opinion. Prismacolor pencils have enough of an oily base that I have had good results with just a white Prismacolor premier blending pencil for burnishing. In my work with the chickens, I used another brand of pencil, was not happy with the coverage of the grain of paper as much. I think I should have tried your watercolor base under the pencil in that work, I believe it would have worked rather well. Too bad I did not see that tip before I started the work. :( Below is another work I did a few years ago in which I did not blend the pencil or burnish it at all. I liked the paper grain very well and wanted a softer feeling so left it as was.

https://fineartamerica.com/contests/wildlife-pencil-art.html?tab=vote&artworkid=18288243

Archival Stonehenge Cotton paper is what I used on the owl and owlet work above. I highly recommend it, even though a bit expensive it has such a lovely grain there is no need to burnish the work at all on it.

thanks for the paper info, Angela! I, too, have had limited success using alcohol as a burnishing solution, however, I've had better luck with Gamsol Solution, used sparingly on initial glazes, then pencil burnishing after further glazes are laid down.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-lotus-life-cycle-angela-davies.html

Prismacolor Premier Colored pencil drawing on Stonehenge archival cotton paper, a great texture no need to burnish with the great coverage you get~

Angela…your renderings are So beautiful…left “comment love” on both!…thanks for showcasing different papers….always a fun exercise!

As for my slowly developing gift for a friend…almost there… here’s the latest version below:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/pointing-to-the-finish-line-4-laurel-adams.html

The picture now finally complete has been posted and the WIP link is no longer viable.

Stopped by to leave some love on your newest work Laurel, your friend is going to love her beautiful gift!! :)

Thanks Angela, I am loving your new pencil paintings…gorgeous chickens in the blue coop..:-)) I just started to work a bit on the background today.

hope you have a very happy birthday, Laurel! to celebrate, I'm sharing some of my faves of your colored pencil work - tough to choose!!!! But, in the end, I selected my all-time fave, Dancing in the Rain, plus two that you did from photos I sent to you, so there!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/dancing-in-the-rain-laurel-adams.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/darrells-hot-stuff-laurel-adams.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-heartland-laurel-adams.html

Thank you so much Conni for sharing these in the BUZzz to celebrate my birthday, I so appreciate the comment love!

Hi folks - new to the group and just dipping my toe in here!

Bit of a backstory for me... engineer/IT professional by trade. Haven't really taken any formal art classes since middle school, but have been a lifelong 'dabbler'. Not really ever focused on one media, though I have always enjoyed the simplicity and flexibility of graphite.

Few years ago, during the pandemic, my wife got me a nice set of drawing pencils and a sketchbook from the Sketchbook Project through the Brooklyn Art Library. I started just drawing from photo references that I had, drawing from subjects that otherwise interest me. My most involved hobby for the last decade or so up until the pandemic put a dent in it was playing traditional Irish music in pub sessions here at home and abroad, so that 'drew' (no pun intended--this time) my interest early on.

This was one of the first pieces I finished in that book, and after sharing it with a few friends (including the subject shown here!), I got enough encouraging feedback that I eventually started sharing more of my images, and eventually started up an account here on FAA.

Have a lot more I'd like to add, but I'll leave it at that for now... Anyone else on here focus on graphite? I feel like I've seen little, if any, graphite work on FAA. I've started to experiment more with watercolor (starting with watercolor pencil and moving into pans), but graphite is still my go-to.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/blackie-plays-on-while-siobhans-fiddle-rests-tristan-pruss.html

The story: This piece is based on a photo I took while playing in a session at The Diamond Bar, in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland, while I was visiting in 2018. The man shown is Michael 'Blackie' O'Connell, one of the leading uilleann pipers in the world. The uilleann pipes are a bellows-blown bagpipe native to Ireland--quite different from the more familiar Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe. Blackie gave me my first few lessons on the instrument in his kitchen, about 10 years earlier. The fiddle in the foreground belongs to Siobhan Peoples, a notable traditional fiddler in her own right, and the daughter of the late Donegal-style fiddle legend Tommy Peoples.

Welcome, Tristan! I don't think anyone who is a member of the BUZzz does graphite, there are several of us who use various colored pencils, inks, etc., to draw. I love good graphite drawing, I have done two little doodle pieces, also based on my own reference from my head - I live on a farm, so fence posts are common!

Here's a link to one of my two graphite pencil drawings:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/buttercups-and-chamomile-by-fence-conni-schaftenaar.html

I'm also fascinated by the fact that you play Irish music, which I dearly love! In my mis-spent youth, when legs and feet and balance were still going strong, I did a lot of step dancing - learned a very few Irish step dance steps, but mostly Appalachian Clogging and English Clogging. Much of the Appalachian clogging and also the contra-dancing my husband and I used to do was done to tunes with heavy roots in Irish music.

Tristan, amazing work…I featured and now left “comment love” beneath the image. WELCOME to the BUZzz threads! Graphite, soft charcoal and Indian ink were my first loves…and all but a few recent sketches remain in my current portfolio. I lost both early portfolios to water damage decades ago…long story which was told in my FAA interview back in 2020 when I was honored with the FAA Tony Award. If you are interested, search community discussions, “Getting to know Laurel Adams”.

Below is one of my graphite sketches rendered for an FAA contest:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/vintage-fostoria-laurel-adams.html

There are some AMAZING graphite artists here on FAA…MIRO GRASNIAK comes to mind. I will have to host a “pencil” contest someday …soon!..:-)

Conni, many thanks for the beautiful mixed media graphite and colour wash rendering. Left some “comment love”.

Angela, Not to disappoint, I finally finished and posted my colour pencil painting: “The Finished Point” tonight and will remove the early edits. It was a fun exercise that stimulated some discussion. Thanks for brainstorming the resolution of my sideline wispies on this one…it helps to drop it onto procreate and simulate alternate finales before committing to the “finished point”…lol

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-finished-point-laurel-adams.html

Oh, my, the finished piece is just perfect, Laurel - I'm sure your friend will be utterly delighted with it! have left some love on the piece!

Laurel, went over to visit your newly finished work, absolutely beautiful, with so many lovely details. Love the subtle lily of the valley lending a magical mood! Your friend will be so pleased!

Thanks for the welcomes! I realized that in my bio I list both pencil AND colored pencil, but I've actually completed few colored pencil works in recent years, and until this morning, did not have any posted here!

I decided to upload this piece, even though it's rather personal, so I've made it not for sale, but just as an example of some color work. This was a horse that my daughter leased, and who was her primary ride through her first show season a couple years ago. Unfortunately, by the end of the season, she was showing signs that she was just ready for a rest, and due to a number of other complications, we wound up leaving that barn. My daughter misses her so, and if we were in a position to do so financially, we would love to buy her and move her to our new barn as a pasture pet so my daughter could just love on her for the rest of her days.

This was actually done with Albrecht Durer water color pencils, and I had originally intended to activate it and paint it, but by the end, I was so happy with it as is, I was afraid 'painting' it might ruin it, so I've just left it as a watercolor piece.

I've never worked with any sort of blending or burnishing tools for colored pencil--any recommendations? I love my blending stomps for graphite, so I imagine the usage and results would be something somewhat similar, but with neutral tint pencils or other tools?

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/ruthies-side-eye-tristan-pruss.html

Ruthie is wonderful, Tristan! as a life-long horse person, I've seen that "side eye" many times - often is an early warning of attitude! I think I'm glad you didn't activate the WC pencil - I've had mixed results with that, the most frustrating being that the color that i've worked to achieve working with the dry pencil becomes a different shade altogether - very aggravating! have left some love with Ruthie . . .

Laurel and I were talking about this discussion last week and I mentioned using colored pencils with an optical mixing style. At her request, I knocked out simple drawing using only three pencils: one red, one blue and one yellow. The idea is that when viewed the three colors mix in the eye to yield green, purple, orange amd even brown..

Although the scan is not as vivid as the original, I hope you can see the effect in this image:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/still-life-composition-only-a-fine-day.html

Some of the details got lost in the scan and some of the color did shift. I tried to adjust for the losses, which did bring out a lot of detail, but it diluted the effect. Therefore, I rejected those fixes and uploaded the unaltered image.

I will try again with another image.

Please enjoy.