"Still Life Spices" Colored Pencil Drawing

This blog is always about a month (or more) behind "real time." It takes time for me to finish a piece of artwork, photograph it, upload those photos to my computer, add watermarks, upload them to this blog, and write about them. I also tend to schedule posts a couple to a few weeks in advance, so I always know that there's something going up on the blog soon. All of this is to say - though this post is going live in mid-November, I wrote and edited this content in late October, and created the drawing itself even earlier.

September and October were slow art months for me this year. I had grand plans to create several 5"x7" sized drawings with holiday themes, which I would then scan, resize, and print on notecards in time to give to my local community art center (Paint Creek in Rochester, MI) for their 2018 holiday market. Items for the holiday market are due by late October; my art schedule then had these drawings planned for completion in September. But then I got pregnant. And had a miscarriage. And I'll be honest - for several weeks in August, September, and October, I was not in the mood to work on anything creative, let alone festive holiday-themed drawings that were looking forward to the future.

Some people find art therapeutic, but I'm not usually one of those people. (Instead, I often use writing as my therapy-of-choice.) To me, creating art is more a point of pride, a way to produce nice things for other people, and a way to try to make some extra money. I would love to allow myself to experiment more and also create art just for myself, or just for fun - but my time is limited and more often than not I focus on art that I can share, market, and sell. The standards are high, then - it can't just be a hot mess, it has to be well-executed. And when I am depressed, when I'm grieving, when I'm lacking self-confidence, it's really hard to believe I should or can create good artwork. I had the time, but I procrastinated. I had no motivation.

I finally produced one small, simple colored pencil drawing - one of the several designs I had originally planned. I started it sometime in September and finished it in early October. I didn't particularly like the way it turned out (no surprise, really, as my heart wasn't in making it), and I didn't move forward with my plans to make any others. Maybe next year will finally be the year I make a "variety pack" set of holiday notecards; in any case, it is not going to be 2018.

The 5"x7" drawing features two glass mugs of apple cider, complete with cinnamon sticks and apple slices, surrounded by a few red berries, apple slices, and a twine-wrapped bundle of more cinnamon sticks in a make-believe still life arrangement. The atmosphere is undefined, with no clear tabletop or any perspective lines and a few bokeh-style circles in the upper right reminiscent of holiday lights or glitter. I used Prismacolor pencils on toned tan Strathmore paper.

I did at least make holiday cards out of my "White Poinsettia" drawing from a couple years ago - so if you're looking for holiday cards, don't worry, I still got you covered. :) They're available now in packs of ten at the aforementioned PCCA holiday market in downtown Rochester, MI, and will also be featured in my next blog post.

Winter Photos

It was another snowy winter in Michigan! There was even a stretch in February there where it seemed like every day we got another couple inches of snow. (I think I'd much rather have a single 10-inch snowstorm than five 2-inch days in a row - then you only have to shovel your driveway once instead of every day for five days straight.) What a ridiculous state... at least the snow is pretty, though! (When you don't have to drive in it.)

Here are some of my favorite snowy pictures I took this past season, including pics from December 2017 - March 2018.

As always, I also tried to take pictures of flowers, when I happened across some in my day to day life. They were few and far between this time of year (obviously), but I did get a couple nice shots. The first is of a potted plant that was left on my desk at work (they had a lot of extras after an event, and went around handing out potted plants to everyone). The second is of tulip bouquets at a local supermarket the week of Valentine's Day in February.

I'm excited for spring flowers to arrive! We planted a bunch of tulips in our front yard landscaping this past fall, and some are already starting to grow! More pictures of those to come, of course, once I have an entire compilation of spring flowers to share. :)

Orlando Flowers (Part Two)

As I explained in yesterday's post, I recently visited Orlando, Florida for a vacation with my husband. All of the photos below are ones I took of flowers around Disney's Epcot and at the Universal Resort (around the Cabana Bay Hotel where we stayed, along the "garden walk" to Universal City Walk, and inside the two theme parks - Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure).

Orlando Flowers (Part One)

Last month, from February 3-7, my husband and I took a vacation to Orlando, Florida. We stayed at Cabana Bay, a Universal Resort Hotel, and visited Universal's two theme parks - Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We also spent a day at Disney's Epcot.

Our main goal of the trip was to see the two Harry Potter worlds that Universal created in its theme parks - Diagon Alley in Universal Studios, and Hogwarts/Hogsmede in Islands of Adventure. But along the way, we also happened upon a great many gorgeous, colorful flowers. Coming from cold Michigan, it seemed like there was an abundance of sunshine and color in Florida. Needless to say, I couldn't help snapping a few pictures of my favorite flowers.

All of these photos were taken in Universal Resorts (around the Cabana Bay Hotel, the "garden walk" to Universal City Walk, and the two theme parks) and in Disney's Epcot, which had a lot of great picturesque views with floral landscapes.

Here are some of my best photos (I will post a few more tomorrow):

White Poinsettia Drawing

About a week ago, I completed this quick 8"x10" drawing, influenced by one of the photographs I took of our new white poinsettia plant. (I say "quick" because it took considerably less time than my massive 22"x30" colored pencil drawing "30 Days" - but it still took about 2-3 hours from start to finish, so it wasn't exactly a super quick sketch, either.)

I used Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore toned tan paper.

First I drew an outline with graphite pencil.

Then I went around the whole drawing, erasing the graphite lines as I no longer needed them, and filling in the outline with light shades of four colored pencils - a dark brown, a medium brown, a pale yellow, and a light white-green for highlights. I also added a fifth color (dark green) as I went around in this initial layer and ran into the green leaves of the poinsettia plant.

Once I had this first layer down, it was time to start adding the fun stuff - details and contrast to really make the drawing unique. I started by going over the leaves with that dark green pencil again, adding in some dark blue as well.

I also added in some sea-green into the shadows on the leaves that were more greenish in tone.

Then I added some orange into places where the shadows were warmer.

I used a pure white to really bring out the highlights of the plant.

I debated for a while at this point where I wanted to be done with the drawing or not. It looked a lot like the photograph, and I was happy with it. But it also seemed too light-colored to me, as well as too "neutral" and I ultimately (after taking some time to sleep on it and consider the possibilities) decided to work on it for another hour or so, really punching up the contrast even further, and adding in more colors to make the plant "more" than just a drawing of a white poinsettia.

I added in purple and red into the warmer shadows, added more brown/tan in a few places, and used a black colored pencil to darken the dark areas even further. It made it look more cartoonish, perhaps - with the blacker outlines around some of the leaves - but I don't think it detracted too much from the realism. It just made the poinsettia realism-plus, and added melodrama to the drawing. :)

And there is the finished piece!

I wanted to create a specifically winter-themed drawing so that I can scan this drawing in and make holiday cards out of it to sell at PCCA, on Etsy, or at other places next holiday season. I love how colorful it turned out!