California Gnatcatcher in colored pencil

California Gnatcatcher on California buckwheat in colored pencil. Greg Gillson. March 3, 2019.

In February I signed up for an online colored pencil tutorial by Amie Howard Art. It was a single tutorial lesson, following along as Amie drew a robin. Amie is in the UK, so that's a European Robin. And the price equated to less than $20.

The robin tutorial turned out quite well. It is inserted below. So I decided to use the same technique using my own photograph, but include an out-of-focus background. The gnatcatcher above is the result. What you see above may not be the final result. I may keep working on it, pushing the shadows to add shape and contrast.

I chose the gnatcatcher because I had trouble with the white belly on the robin and wanted lots of "white" to work on. The white breast and belly on the gnatcatcher is various grays, cinnamon, blues, and violets. Actually, before I added the background it was a striking piece. I wanted the background to make it as realistic as I could. Yes, I still have a ways to go in that regard.

Robin tutorial. Greg Gillson. February 2019.

I have been working in colored pencil for over two years now. But I probably haven't even created one piece per month. I was drawing in graphite and started ballpoint pen art, as well. Still, only about 70 total "art" pieces in over two years, so not near enough practice. Two years ago my values were poor (very little shadow, so not very 3-dimensional) and I was outlining my drawings like cartoons. Recently my art improved, but Amie's technique created colorful and detailed (if a bit too fluffy for my taste) art that my attempts had been lacking. [See a recent piece: Yellow-rumped Warbler on succulent that I did a week or two before the robin tutorial. It has good shading, but lacks fine detail.]

Switching from Prismacolor Premier to the harder Faber-Castell Polychromos allows sharpening to a finer point. The Polychromos have better light resistance so they should keep their color 100+ years, not fade away in 5 to 15.

I'm still working on it, but Amie's technique has made me excited that I may be able to achieve very realistic-looking work... maybe in another couple years.

Amie Howard Art webpage is here.
Find more of Ms. Howard's work on Instagram @amiehowardart

Colored pencil art: Yellow-rumped Warbler on succulent

In December I photographed a Yellow-rumped Warbler on a succulent at Silver Strand that I thought would make a great colored pencil drawing.

I'm still working on my photorealism technique. This one is getting closer! I think it needs a bit more fine details, though. My plant drawing actually has more detail than what was visible in the reference photo (see below). In order to be realistic I have to get the proportions perfect. Unfortunately, I think I made the warbler's bill a touch too big and the eye a touch too small. That's something that you can't fix after you've started with the color.

Each drawing is just practice for the next one, or so I've been told.

Yellow-rumped Warbler on succulent. Prismacolor colored pencil. 2019. Greg Gillson

Putting in the background.

The flower stalk: first of many layers.

My reference photo.

Nature Journaling with ballpoint pen

A couple of months ago I experimented with ballpoint pen as the drawing medium in my journal. I had been using graphite. That worked well, and I often only used a mechanical pencil with HB lead. If I wanted it darker I would use some darker 4B or others. Then I'd have to spray it with fixative to keep it from smudging. I had also been using colored pencils, but that is an extremely slow medium.

I wish I could remember what article I read or video I watched that was the inspiration for going to ballpoint pen. But when I tried it I was immediately impressed. You can actually use the same shading technique with ballpoint pen as graphite pencil! When you push harder more ink is released, when you let up the pressure the ink is lighter. This is only for ballpoint; other pen types lay down an even amount of ink whether pressing hard or lightly.

Here are some sample pages.

Because the ink will not smudge I can journal on both front and back pages, unlike pencil (until sprayed with fixative).

Nature journal entry

Some people make an initial sketch in graphite pencil and then ink that. But that doesn't save any time over graphite alone. Rather, start drawing lightly in ballpoint pen (expecting that your first marks will be wrong) and just go with it, strengthening the lines that are correct. It is rather freeing to draw without erasing.

Most of my nature journaling is not done in the field as taught. Rather, I photograph profusely and then draw from photos. In the example following I drew from photos, primarily freehand. For the turkey profile and the one running from page to page I used a grid and pencil sketch to get proportions right.

2-page spread.

Here is a close-up. If you click on the photo and look close you may see a few of those stray barely-visible faint "wrong" lines.

close-up

While the above "finished" drawings took a bit more time, the sketches on the following page were done more quickly. Nature journaling is "not about the art." It is your observations and impressions that matter. The sketches bring back to mind. They don't try to perfectly replicate what you saw. Some of the nature journaling instructional books I have use rather quick, crude, drawings. I'm trying to emulate that quick nature and curb my perfectionism. Some of the time, anyway.

Impressions from my pelagic trip.

One downside of ballpoint pen ink is that it will fade, especially if exposed to sunlight. So it's perfect for a journal.

Pacific-slope Flycatcher in ballpoint pen

One of yesterday's photos of Pacific-slope Flycatcher at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego rendered in ballpoint pen (BiC round stic medium).

I had never tried to create artwork with ballpoint pen before. It turns out that it can be used in a similar way to graphite pencil. You can sketch very lightly and create layers of tone by going over the same area several times. You can't erase, but I was able to draw this freehand very lightly and any marks in the wrong place were so faint as to be invisible in the final work. Of course, I could draw lightly in graphite first and go over it with pen, if I wished.

The ink in all ballpoint pens is dye-based, as opposed to pigment-based in many other pens. So it is not lightfast. It will fade under the infrared light of the sun or even indoor lighting. So I can't create an art piece to hang on the wall. But it should last many years in my nature journal.

I should have perhaps used the scanner, but instead took a camera phone photo. So there are some bluish shadows in the "white" of the paper caused by the brightness of my desk lamp that appear in this image that aren't in the original.

Pacific-slope Flycatcher in ballpoint pen. Click for larger view.

My reference photo.