After teaching some fellow artists my techniques in colored pencil I'm showing you one of my works my class worked on. A long format piece that lends it's self to the almost life size rendering of the irises I brought to my home garden from my grandmother's garden in PA when we moved to our current VA home. My Mom kept her mother's irises going and then passes them on to me, and I have since passed many on to my sons. They are prolific and beautiful at the same time. Although I have worked my way into other subject matter my garden still holds many botanical subjects waiting to be captured in colored pencil. This will be part of a series, although not right away, as I get easily distracted with new subjects.
I have completed a cat portrait recently also just to prove I could. It's not for sale as the image was not my own. But I did enjoy doing it. My son Chris tells me I should get into pet portraits, something I'm not sure I'd like to do as getting reference shots of living things that don't sit long is a challenge for me. Now if I could just get my dog Daphne to not shy away from the camera I may just do her portrait. Her dalmatian spots may drive me crazy but I would so like to capture her playful manner. Below is my sample portrait at 8 x 6 it's not large but was my first attempt at fur.
Keep your pencils near as inspiration is everywhere!
