Children's Story Illustrations: Finding a Locket

Yesterday, I finished up illustrations for a sweet story for Sparkle magazine.

Most folks wonder "how did you do that?" So, here's a bit about the process.

First, the sketches:

Then, the under-painting:

And, then the drawing re-applied in color as the last step.

#illustration #childrensbooks #art #painting

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Back in action with pastels!

Over the past few months, I've been taking pastel classes at a local art center. Using a print of a painting as my reference by mouth artist Mariusz Maczka called Floral Brilliance, I re-created the artwork in pastels -- thus re-acclimating myself to pastels after having not used them for over 30 years (yikes!!!).

 

 

 

 

Maczka's artwork is stunning, especially knowing that he painted his original all by mouth...simply amazing. More info on Maczka can be found here: http://www.vdmfk.com/unsu/vdmfk-mednarodno/umetniki-po-svetu/po-drzavah.html?tx_kuenstlerdb_pi1%5Bartist%5D=609&tx_kuenstlerdb_pi1%5Bmode%5D=DETAIL

 

Thanks for the inspiration Maczka. I'm humbled by your talent.

 

For more frequent updates on Kugler art, visit: www.facebook.com/cherylkuglerart

 

Thanks for stopping by~

 

C

Feel What the Drawing Needs

In art class at the York Art Association, we had a very indepth discussion and demonstration about perspective - 1 point, 2 point and 3 point perspective. That was heavy-duty. So, the next exercise was not perspective related at all...! It was a fun, carefree, abstract, 45 minute exercise to add what you "feel" the drawing needs. Not over-thinking and analyzing, rather simply draw, shade, texture as you feel the drawing needs.

 

 

For more frequent updates on Kugler art, visit: www.facebook.com/cherylkuglerart

 

Thanks for stopping by~

 

C

Influenced By Berthe Morisot - A Series of 4 Oil Stick Paintings

Learning to use oil sticks in last semester's drawing class was so fun!

For our final project, we were challenged to select and learn about a master artist, study their work to learn how they created their compositions, then develop a series of four of our own still life's that were influenced by what we learned.

My Artist: Impressionist painter, Berthe Morisot
I was drawn to Morisot's paintings because of the fancy hats and loose brush stokes of her work.

My series of four oil stick paintings depict a bust of a lady wearing colorful hats:









And, here's the process of creating the fourth and final in the series:








A Bit About Morisot:
Morisot was a woman ahead of her time. Born into an upper-middle class family, she pursued a successful profession as an artist at a time when society frowned upon a woman of class having a career. She was the only female in the elite circle of French Impressionist painters. Because of her social class, her painting subjects were limited to domestic scenes, women and children. Outside landscapes were painted at her family's summer property. Many of her paintings portray her daughter, Julie.

If you enjoyed this post, take a peek at my final project from last Spring's semester:

• Teapots - created in subtractive chalk

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my "Creative Time" blog. In a few weeks, I'll be posting an update to my neighbor's duck carving of a Hen Mallard that's she creating for the WARDs world duck competition in Ocean City, Maryland. So, please stop in again. soon!

Teapots

This week, I'm finishing up a 15-week college drawing class focused entirely on black and white medium. I'm a returning student. And, even though I went to college years ago and graduated with the more practical marketing/business degree, this past year my creative side got the best of me and I decided to return to the college classroom to work on my drawing skills.


Even though I am always creating and drawing and have taken workshops here and there, I've often felt that I've never "officially learned to draw from the experts". I guess the fact that I work on a college campus gave me the added 'oomph' to step back into the classroom.

Interestingly, just last week, I read another artist's blog and could really appreciate her discussion about it never being too late or you being too old to pursue your artistic talents.


Throughout the course, we worked with pencil, conte crayon, charcoal, ink wash, bamboo sticks dipped in ink, charcoal dust, and oil sticks. For the final project, students were to choose a theme and create four drawings using the same application. I chose subtractive chalk and my theme was teapots.

To create a subtractive chalk drawing, the artist covers the entire page with charcoal - making sure it is mushed and smudged into the page so that the white paper no longer exists. Then, from observation (and with really messy charcoal-blackened hands), you begin to erase out the picture - adding and erasing charcoal - until you have pushed and worked the drawing to your satisfaction.

Although the class has been lots of fun and I've learned plenty, I cannot tell you how starved I am to work with color again!