Sunday, January 22, 2012

Colored Pencil Portrait Class – Work in Progress

Souzi 012112

Souzi – Work in Progress

Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones

What fun we are having in the colored pencil portrait class!  Four wonderful artists and myself are working on “Souzi”.

This is our second week to work on this portrait.  Don’t let the hollow eyes frighten you!  We will have those beauties put in next week.

We are using the Prismacolor Portrait Pencil Set  to complete the skin tones.  We are also using Ann Kullberg's Skin Tone Bar  as a guideline to select our color values.

The first overall layers or “washes” of skin tone value was put over the whole faces except the eyes and highlight areas.  The colors used in these washes are: Cream, Light Peach, Jasmine, Pink Rose, Beige.  This was done on the first week of working on Souzi.

The second week, we started modeling her facial features a little more.  We used Sand on most of the face.  Some areas of the face aren’t quite as yellow, so we only used it as needed.

The next color was Yellow Ochre.  Souzi’s facial features really started coming to life when using this color.  We used Yellow Ochre only in the shadow areas of the face.  These shadow areas are on the right-facing side of her face and around the shadows of her eyes, nose, mouth, and chin.

After using Yellow Ochre, we moved on to Peach.  We put Peach everywhere on the skin except the highlighted areas.  We leave the highlighted areas the white of the paper.  Once color hits these, it is extremely difficult to remove.

We moved on to Salmon Pink after the Peach.  Salmon Pink was used only in the darkest part of the shadow areas.

Class time ended way too soon!  We are looking forward to next week when we add the eyes and maybe a few more skin tones.

See you again soon!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

New Studio

Studio 2012

Copyright 2012, Valerie Jones

We recently moved to a different house…with it came lots of wonderful lighting for a studio!  I am so excited to finally have natural light to work with.

I made a vow with myself to have studio hours that will be uninterrupted.  How did it work today?  hmmm….I kept finding things to side-track me.   You know….emails, Facebook, music.

What things side-track you from being in the studio?

Monday, December 5, 2011

Upcoming Classes in NE Oklahoma

"Cara"


Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones




I am looking foward to teaching next year at various locations in NE Oklahoma. You can find me Mondays at Hobby Lobby in Broken Arrow for a Beginning Drawing class, on Tuesdays in Owasso for a Beginning Drawing class, on Fridays at the Bartlesville Art Association for a Portrait Drawing class, and on Saturdays at Hobby Lobby in Owasso for a Colored Pencil Portrait class. These classes start in January and go through the first part of March. If you are interested in attending, please register by December 29th, 2011.





Monday, November 7, 2011

Blessings

Cara 102011“Cara” – work-in-progress

Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones

 

This past week I have been awakened to all the blessings in my life.  It’s a wonderful, peaceful feeling that has washed over me as I think about all the people who have walked along side me.  Life on earth can be a pleasurable journey.

Above is a graphite drawing of “Cara”.  She was one of our models while at The Ryder Studio.  I am teaching the method of drawing that I learned while there.  I have seven amazingly talented students who are learning how to draw “Cara”.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Mr. Parker – Complete

Mr. Parker

Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones

 

I delivered this finished drawing to a happy client today!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Mr. Parker – Week 2

Mr. Parker 101711

Mr. Parker – Work in Progress

Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones

As I begin Week 2 of working on Mr. Parker, I find myself smiling back at him!  Do your paintings and drawings talk back to you?

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A Peaceful Calm

Mr. Parker 10112011  Mr. Parker, Work-in-Progress

Copyright 2011, Valerie Jones

 

Ever have a day when you want to draw and all your pencil strokes come out choppy?  I had such a day recently.

What did I do to remedy the problem?  I took a scratch piece of paper and practiced only pencil strokes.  As I practiced, a rhythmic feel came over the pencil strokes.  As my pencil strokes calmed, so did my breath.  Everything seemed to work better.

What kind of technique do you use when you need to create a peaceful calm to draw?