Even More Tiny Ones

Here are the two other ACEOs that I did at the Art Camp this past weekend.  Once again, they're colored pencil.

The bear went smoothly, and it was a nice change of pace to put a bit of landscape in it.  But, as always with colored pencil, it was a pain preserving the lights.

 

Then on to the wolf.  This one was coming along quite nicely when I hit a situation I've never hit before.  I actually seem to have overloaded the paper with colored pencil because new layers started dislodging the ones underneath.  So that was a rude and sudden ending.  Unfortunatly, these areas show on  the shadow parts of the face and chest.  I don't know whether a different type of paper would have behaved differently.  I'll have to ask a few of my colored pencil friends.

But, for now, I'm more than ready to move on to acrylics.

 

I'm very glad that I chose to work so quickly on these and not draw them ahead of time.  The experience has made me more confident.

Next in the ACEO Parade!

Here's the next ACEO I did over the weekend - a big-eared owl.  The moon is an image I just can't resist.  I know that I have too much "light" on the front side of the owl since the light source is behind him.  But after I checked that my artistic license hadn't expired, I went ahead.

I ordered a few tubes of gouache the other day and can't wait for them to arrive.  Then I'll work on some ACEOs with a combination of those (I got acrylic gouache) and soft-body acrylics.  That combination should work well for me.  I can get lights over darks, and glazes of the soft-body acrylics will give me a lot of subtle color gradation.

But I do like the look of colored pencil.  The graininess - which is there despite rubbing with solvent - gives an interesting texture.  And I can get very nice soft edges like on the edges of this owl.  I suppose I may miss that with the acrylics.  We'll see!

More 'Tiny' Art

This is my work from yesterday.  Our art club is having a retreat this weekend.  We've rented a large art room in one of the local junior colleges and are getting together, doing our own art things, and enjoying each others' company.  Yesterday was the first day of the event and I completed these two ACEOs.

I wanted to spend the time practicing my colored pencil technique.  Sometimes it's frustrating, especially because I can't get a sharp enough point (I use a mechanical pencil for drawing, so always have a very sharp point) and the point that I do manage to get quickly wears down.  So detail is difficult for me.  I keep thinking about how I could do so much better with a small brush.  But I'm determined to work on this medium.

In the end, I was happy with these two efforts.

The parrot is on white paper because I wanted really bright  colots.  But the fox is on toned paper.  I like both papers used in the ways that are most appropriate to them. 

A Bobcat and an Interesting Cropping Question

When I do an ACEO I don't typically work on pre-cut paper.  Instead I work on a small piece of  quality drawing paper.  I work a bit beyond the expected edges, then find the best place to crop it to size.

So on this one I began as usual, but before I got very far I decided where I would crop the face and worked from then on just in that area.  In fact, I taped a little frame made from an index card over the drawing as I continued to work.

Then at the end when I took the frame away I liked the effect!  I find the ragged edges on three sides and the transition from "in process" to finished on the fourth side very appealing.

So now I don't know whether to crop it or not.

Working Small

This drawing measures 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" - an ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) - the for-sale version of an Artist Trading Card.  I began with graphite then switched to colored pencil.  It's been a while since I've done any drawing, and even longer since I've worked so small.  And I thoroughly enjoyed both.

I worked on a toned buff drawing paper and originally I intended to use only graphite and white colored pencil.  But part way through I decided I wanted to give it a vintage look and added browns.  The darkest parts of the background are glazed with Indigo Blue.  Also, I blended the background with Gamsol which made it much deeper in color because it partially dissolves the wax so that it sinks into the texture of the paper.

Thistle Complete

Thistle is finished at last!

My favorite part of this little character doll was making her clothing.  The fabrics are so beautiful, from the dark purple silk pantaloons to the satin ribbon points at the bottom of the bodice and sleeves.  The ribbon ruffle around her neck is a pretty sheer ribbon with satin edges which adds beautiful texture.

The ribbon roses don't really go with the thistle theme, but having just recently acquired the skill of making them, I couldn't resist.  I especially like the green one on her bodice.

Her shoes were a challenge.  I came up with several ideas, but rejected them all until I thought of these little sandals.  I made them on her feet, first gluing the ribbon pieces in place on the bottoms of her feet.  Then I cut ultrasuede soles.  Each sole is a double thickness of ultrasuede with a piece of index card sandwiched in between and sewn all around with a whip stitch.  The final step was making polymer clay heels and gluing the soles and heels in place.  I discovered that I had some lavender opalescent milk glass flower beads that made the perfect accent for the sandals.

 

 

Little Owl Has the Blues

A friend came over last week to do some needle felting together.  She wanted to do owls, so I came up with an approach to making the armature and we got started.  That day, we were able to make the polymer clay eyes, beaks, and feet and construct the armature, but we didn't get to felting since just the armature took all day.

Wrapping the armature with strips of wool felt really helps with the initial felting.  The wool felt strips provide a base for the wool felting fibers to stick to.  For all but the last 1/4" to 1/2" of felting I use "core wool" from Living Felt (http://www.livingfelt.com).  The core wool is very nice, but is not dyed and not quite as fine as the wool felting batts.  But, most importantly, it's less expensive.  I know of people who use polyester fiber for the inside of their felted pieces but I want my pieces to be all wool.  And as far as the felt strips around the armature are concerned, I've found that the felting wool just doesn't stick very well to acrylic felt.  So it's all wool for me! 

I'm happy with my little blue owl, but I have some improvements in mind for my next one.  The most important is how I attach the feet to the overall armature.  I built the feet over craft wire for strength, but then left about a 4" piece sticking up out of the top of the leg.  I wrapped the craft wire around the thick wire in the armature and hot-glued it.  But I think the join should be stronger, so I need to rethink that.  Also, I'd like to improve the eyes.  I want them a lot shiner, but I want to stick with polymer clay (that is, avoid buying glass eyes) because I can custom paint them for the individual owl.

"Baby Blue" was lots of fun to make and I'm planning to make more of these little guys!