#30 Days - Rose #25

Time to start the fifth and final row of my "30 Days" colored pencil drawing!

This is rose #25 - the first rose (the rose on the far left) of this last row. I started with a blue colored pencil.

Then I filled in some of the shadows with a yellow-orange pencil, and blended these two colors together a bit by adding brown to the edges of the petals.

The next layers of the rose were magenta, another layer of blue, and peach.

To finish it off, I lightened the rose with a cream colored pencil, and added some more contrast by darkening/deepening the shadows with a dark purple and blue.

When the rose was finished, I worked on the background - of this rose (rose #25) an also of the rose immediately above it (rose #19), using a similar color scheme to blend the two backgrounds together.

Now onto rose #26!

"30 Days" - Rose #24

The final rose in row #4 - rose #24!

I started with a light tan pencil, and then started layering blues and purples on top - especially in the "shadowy" parts of the petals, where I wanted the most blue/purple to be.

I then added yellow-orange to the outside edges of the petals - for contrast against the blue/purple shadows, and because I wanted this rose to have a bit of yellowing/browning along its edges for symbolic reasons.

I added a bit of magenta into the blue/purple areas to make it look more realistic (there aren't too many blue roses in nature - just blue shadows on not-blue roses).

To finish the rose, I added some light peach in for highlights. I also blended this light color into the rest to "neutralize" the saturated blue/purple/magenta a bit.

I never added in a green background to roses #17 or #18 (the two roses directly above roses #23 & #24 in my 6-by-5 grid), so I next worked on the background of these four roses together. I built up layers of leaves, brown vines, and grass, blending the colors into the other background colors of these four roses, as well as other roses they were touching.

So here is the entire colored pencil drawing so far:

I've finished 24 roses, four rows of six roses each. There are a few spots I will add into later (specifically, the green backgrounds for the three roses on the left of row #4), but otherwise these four rows are complete! Just six more roses - one more row - to go!

(Side note: Writing these blog posts has really driven home the point that "rows" and "rose" are just too damn similar. I keep typing one of those words when I meant to type the other!) 

"30 Days" - Rose #23

Continuing with the step-by-step photos of my "30 Days" colored pencil drawing on black paper, the focus of today's post is rose #23.

I was a little behind on adding in the green background, so before I started on rose #23 I actually went through and added in some leaves and grass to roses #19-22. I didn't completely fill in the backgrounds - because I wanted to relate some of the backgrounds to the roses in row #5 below, and was waiting until I got to that last row to finish up - but I did make sure to put the "important" parts of the background in, so that I wouldn't forget which roses I wanted to have certain background elements for, and so the space for those elements would be "reserved" on the page, taking up the amount of space I wanted them to take up.

For rose #20 (the purple rose, second from the left in row #4), I added some curly vine-type greenery. Most of the other leaves I'd done up to this point were stereotypical shorter leaves, and I wanted that rose to have more whimsy to it, and look a little like it had some movement, or wind/a breeze in the background.

For rose #22 (fourth from the left in the 4th row), I made the background dark - using dark green, dark red, and dark blue, to match the background for rose #2 way back in the first row.

At this point, I saved the backgrounds for roses #19 & #21 to go back to later, and moved on to drawing rose #23 (and its neighbor, rose #24). These are the last two roses in the 4th row (second from the bottom).

For drawing rose #23, I started with a light orange/peach color. I also made sure to mark where the bumblebee was going to go in yellow, so that the space would be reserved for the bee as I went and built up layers.

Next, I added some light purple into the insides of the petals and some yellow-orange to the edges of the petals.

I added some bright magenta into the insides of the petals to start building up some darker shadows, and then layered a darker purple in as well.

To finish it off, I lightened the edges of the rose with a cream colored pencil, colored in the dewdrops in this same light color (so they would "pop" three-dimensionally off the petals a bit), and added detail to the bee.

Only 7 roses left - one more in row #4, plus the last six in row #5.

Compliment Collections

One thing I have been trying to do lately is file away "compliments" or other things that make me happy, as I go through my day. If I'm in a bad mood or having a bad day for some reason, it's nice to have a wealth of things to look through to remind myself what I am capable of - but it feels like a chore to go searching around trying to find those memories. Instead of waiting for a bad day and then trying to find motivation to figure out how to cheer myself up, now I've done the "grunt work" ahead of time - by doing a little bit every day.

For instance, if I get a nice email at work (my boss is appreciative of the work I've done recently, or a client is excited about a new design), I take a screenshot of that email and put it in a special folder on my computer desktop. Or if I get a nice comment on a Facebook post or a blog post, or a thoughtful response sent via personal message or email, I'll take a screenshot of those, too. Even if it's not something that I wrote myself - just something I retweeted or reposted - if it spurs thoughtful conversation, I make a note of it.

Other things are comments that are said to me in person. When a friend notices a piece of art I created hanging on the wall of my house and compliments it, or when I'm having a conversation with someone and they appreciate what I've said - when I next have the opportunity, I'll quickly jot down what I remember (paraphrasing, usually). It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be enough to remind you in the future what you were feeling in that moment - i.e. "Someone told me they liked my painting." Maybe it's not even a specific comment you remember, but just a general sense of accomplishment. "15 people came by the spring art show and stopped to look at my artwork." "I'm really proud of the colored pencil drawing I finished today." "I sent out three query letters to literary agents, because I really believe in the novel I'm writing."

I might also include just general things that make me happy. A quote I really liked from a book I'm reading. A meme I saw online that made me laugh.

And I collect all these compliments and positive comments and "good feelings" and put them in a digital folder on my desktop, or print things out to tape to the wall in my home office, or email them to myself with a label that I can easily search for and find later.

Then, next time I need that reminder, I'll know where to find a bunch of them.

"30 Days" - Rose #22

For rose #22, I started with a blue colored pencil.

I added a dark purple to the shadows, to tone down the blue, and then went over the whole rose (or most of it) with a medium peach pencil.

Then I started to go back and add details. I added more purple (this time a lighter purple pencil) over much of the medium peach, blending this purple into the darker purple.

I also added more yellows/browns/dark reds into the shadows, to make the flower less "extreme" purple. The yellows/browns are where the rose is starting to dry and brown.

For the final step, I used a light peach pencil to play up the sharpest highlights.

Only 8 more roses to go - two left to complete row #4, and then the final six for row #5.

"30 Days" - Rose #21

"30 Days" is my 22x30" colored pencil drawing in progress. When it is complete, it will have thirty roses, each one representing a day.

Rose #21 is the third from the left in the second row from the bottom. First I drew the outline for the rose (and its neighbor, rose #22).

Then I colored the rose in with a reddish-brown colored pencil, and erased the graphite pencil lines.

I went over the highlights with a yellow-orange pencil, and then a light tan pencil.

I went through the shadows with a darker purple.

And I blended these shades together with a medium pink pencil.

I added a bit of medium peach color over the pink to make it look a bit more orangey.

This is what the rose looked like when I was "finished" and moved onto rose #22. However, I did later go back and added in a little blue, while I was using the blue pencil on rose #22. I didn't add a lot, because I wanted it to retain it's general pink/orange hue, but I also didn't want it stand out quite so much. Because it's nuzzled between two blue/purple flowers, it needed just a little blue to tie it together to its neighboring roses.