Tag: horse

Grazing Time and Third Little Bird

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I finished another drawing using Grafix Duralar drafting film and Neocolor I crayons, this one our two horses grazing. Pete and Banner are close friends. Banner’s the leader, and Pete’s never far behind.

I left out the background other than a few splotches of color because I’m being a little dramatic but I’m also just beginning to experiment with backgrounds on drafting film.

I also finished this hummingbird, which is the final bird in the Three Little Birds series by the Virtual Instructor. He used Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils, which I have, but the only black paper I have is Canson drawing paper, not a great choice. I couldn’t layer enough so left it about half finished with very little definition, especially on the back and tail. Oh, well. I really enjoyed the series and learned so much about color choice, layering, and process. I carried this over to multiple projects already. Now, I need to decide which course to take next. Maybe pen and ink?

Categories: Art Pastel Pencil

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More Drafting Film Fun

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I think you have to know horses to understand that Pete and his buddy are playing, not fighting. I drew these guys on Grafix drafting film using Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons. I tried using a little water on the first layer, but the color pretty much washed away. I may have to use fixative on this as I’m afraid of what would happen if a drop of water hit the surface. I’m considering buying the water resistant Neocolor I crayons just to use on this surface, which I love.

This one of our Pekingese is also on Grafix, but the Dura-Lar version. I used colored pencils with Pan Pastels.

For both drawings, I used the grid method to draw the initial image. It felt like cheating as I’ve never used a grid before. It helps tremendously with proportions, but adding everything else is up to you. Because drafting film is transparent, I created the grid on a separate sheet of paper and can reuse it.

She’s way cuter in real life.

Categories: Art Pastel Pencil

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The Virtual Instructor

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For Christmas, I subscribed to art lessons at The Virtual Instructor for a year and have completed my first course, The Secrets to Drawing, and also followed along with a live, weekly lesson. So far, I, truly enjoy the classes. I’m gaining skills and filling in missing pieces of my understanding of art.

I bought four Stillman and Birn sketchbooks for my notes and projects while I follow along to the videos. The recent live lesson series focused on graphite and white charcoal on gray paper. I used my new Tombow graphite pencils, a Conte white pastels, and my Nova S&B sketchbook with gray paper to draw this rhinoceros.

This lesson was important because it taught me how to layer different grades of graphite, and using white for highlights was also interesting. (Graphite can go over charcoal, but charcoal cannot go over graphite.) I decided to use this process on a sketch of my own, so I used a photo of my horse and his friend playing in their pasture. I tried out a new paper, Stonehenge, which I love. The texture is like vellum, but it’s somehow crisper, if that makes any sense. This sheet was tinted a warm gray color, not as dark as Nova. I used my Tombow pencils and the Conte pastel. This was a super fun drawing, and I especially enjoyed drawing the texture and patterns of the horse blankets.

Categories: Art Pencil

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