Triple D Game Farm - Montana, Incredible Photos

                Exploring Dora - Siberian Lynx  10 X 8 Colored Pencil on Suede Mat Board

At the end of August I had a simply awesome experience at The Triple D Game Farm and Preserve in Kalispell, MT.  The photography and animal portrait workshop with Gemma Gylling, CPSA, a great colored pencil artist known for very moving animal portraits, didn't disappoint.  For more of her work go to:
Glassgems Studio

Triple D Game Farm is a great photographers resource for shooting wild animals in their natural setting, free of leashes, and cages.  And the young ladies who are their handlers Heather and Lindsy are so very capable, brave and knowledgeable.  Not only knowledgeable of these wonderful animals but of lighting, placement and just plain ole' "What makes a great photo"!

Day One:  I had the most incredible first day, photographing an endangered Amur Leopard named Kupalo, and a shy female Siberian Lynx - Dora.   Had someone told me I could shoot 965 photos in less than 3 hours with these animals I'd have laughed.  We were at times within 6 ft of Kupalo, a 2 year old male about 90 lbs. of pure energy and developing predatory skills.  Amur Leopards are as few as 30-40 in the wild and 300 in captivity.   Heather who raised Kupalo from a cub, worked with him so gently and skillfully, allowing him to be the playful young man he is, providing us with some wonderful photos like the one below.

                                                         "KUPALO" - Amur Leopard

Dora was shy and so very elegant in comparison to Kupalo's raw energy and male curiosity.  The finished CP portrait shown at the beginning of this post, was accomplished from a zoomed in photo I had taken on Day one.  In the afternoons we worked with Gemma on the techniques she uses on suede mat board for capturing the fur on her project of a Mountain Lion.  On day 3 we had the choice of following on with her project or moving to one of our own.  I chose the later.  And the above cp painting is the result.  Once I'm sure it's finished I will spray it with fixative and then frame behind glass.  Something I've been trying to get away with (framing behind glass) but needed for this surface.  My hopes are that I will be able to create the same soft fur textures on my favorite Ampersand Pastelboard.  So stay tuned for my further adventures in wildlife art.

I concluded the Montana experience with a couple days exploring Glacier National Park with my sister and her husband along with my hubby before moving on to Helena for a few days.  And many many more landscape photos for future cp paintings.  This is truly a wonderful area of the country and colorful too!

Jamestown Sea Captain and my busy summer.

                                                               Jamestown Sea Captain
                                                   Colored Pencil on Graphix Frosted Acetate
                                                                         17.25 X 11

Each year I find that summer seems to play tricks on a person, it sounds like a long season, "Those lazy hazy days of summer".  But in reality they are fffffffffaaaaaaaasttttttttttt!  Whizzing by at ultrasonic speeds, no time to catch your breath, enjoy, or even get art enough art finished.  Life as you can see has crept up on me and my summer plans.  The portrait above has been waiting to be called finished for many months now,  and for a variety of reasons.  This guy was a wonderful character we came upon on a trip to the Jamestown Settlement a couple years ago and he played the part well as he stood in charge of the ships upper deck.  So I knew I needed to capture his relaxed but confident nature.

I had worked on Graphix - Duralar (Brand name) before, in a long forgotten workshop given by Robert Guthrie at a CPSA convention, several years ago.  But it was Suzanne Vigil, a portrait artist in northern VA who inspired my completion of this portrait.  The double frosted surface (frosted on both sides of this graphic film) created smooth skin tones so easily.  But and I repeat but, your layers are limited to about 4 on each side of the surface.  Like any new surface it takes a little getting used to.  Lifting color is as easy as a vinyl eraser, used gently as to not make a slick area on the surface.  It is acid free and archival so it meets my requirements of a surface suitable for creating lasting art.  Click here for a link to  the Dick Blick   page to see more about the surface.

Working on both sides of the acetate was a little confusing, as when working on the under side you are working the mirror opposite of your image.  And while that might not be confusing on a floral or still life, on a portrait I found it tricky. (To keep facial proportions correct for a likeness.)  Until I realized I could flip my photo in Photoshop and work on it in reverse.  Unfortunately, it took me a while and some cursing to figure this out!!!  Transferring onto the surface is easy because you can see your image thru the surface and should be done with a slightly lighter than a mid-grey pencil, graphite works also.  All in all I may try this again for CP portraits but it requires matting and framing behind glass, which I'm trying to get away from.  But skin tones are so smooth and hair and beard stubble is fun to create.  So who knows.

Photographing the image was a challenge as it is shiny after the layers of pencil are added.  Thank you to my son Chris and his great photography skills in helping me to finally get a good image.

I will tell you, that working on this surface prepared me for the next new one I will be featuring in my next post later in the week.  So tune in for my update............. along with my CPSA convention notes.

Hope your catching up to your summer plans...........

Gloria

Sanded Surfaces Workshop

                                                           Reflections Of Sea Life SOLD
                                                                      8.5 X 12
                                                   Colored Pencil on Uart Sanded Paper

My summer workshop for sanded surfaces ended on Saturday and a good time was had by all.  I love when students are so eager to learn and do so well on the new surface.  The class worked on the above seashell piece to gain experience on the Uart paper as their first sanded surface.  Uart is a pastel paper that comes in many grits from 400-800 and we worked on the 800 grit for this piece.  They learned how layering is different from normal CP papers and how to blend on this surface.  I start them out on Uart as it is a tough surface and takes CP very well with layers and layers to be added to make the rich colors and textures of these shells.  I hope to add a photo demo to my website soon on this piece.

They then made the change to Ampersand Pastelboard, a hard board primed with marble dust in the primer.  Using their own references for the 5 X 7 piece of white board.  Ampersand acts similar to other sanded surfaces but the hard board gives a different feel.  It enables one, upon completion to spray with fixative and then to preserve with several layers of sprayed Archival varnish to be framed without matting or glazing.  Just like an oil or acrylic painting!  This is my favorite surface to work on.

It was a lot to cover in 3 full days but they were troopers and I enjoyed having them in my home studio.

I hope you try a sanded surface and let me know what you think.  I'll be getting ready for the CPSA convention next week in Brea, CA, where my Harley piece was accepted.  While in CA there are workshops to be enjoyed, new techniques learned and a whole lot of great art and friends to catch up with.  While the hubby and my trusty canine hold down the fort here at home.

I just posted on my website the new classes for Fall so have a look and maybe you too can learn this wonderful medium.  Rest assured I'll be checking email if you want info or have a comment.

Stay cool and enjoy some color this week.

Gloria

40th World Sketch Day - Sketches

                                    Colored Pencil on Mixed Media Strathmore Visual Journal
                                                                          5.5 X 8

Some of you may not have heard of a "Sketch Craw"  or World Sketch Day but it's kind of like an Internationally observed day to sketch everywhere around the world.  Oh no, now I have the Martha and The Vandellas song "Dancing In The Street" playing in my head.  Anyway, it's also kind of like a college bar crawl, going from place to place sketching for the day.  Wine or alcohol optional, but sketching your lunch is encouraged.  I however only had a few hours in the morning to spare so I invited lots of friends, students and other known sketchers to participate.  For more information see link:
http://www.sketchcrawl.com/  or the Facebook Sketch Crawl site at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204425203/?fref=ts

The crazy weather we have had here in VA had me searching for an indoor/outdoor location close to home (due to a busy schedule), and of course a bathroom since there will be coffee involved ;-).  It seems the more I try to plan anything outdoors the rains come and ruin it.  So with coffee in hand, my small sketch kit and a folding chair I headed off to a local nursery to get started.

It is advisable if your inviting friends to a business location to call in advance to get permission.  In this case Richmond's "Great Big Greenhouse" was gracious enough to let us come in early at 8 AM.  A really nice nursery with wonderful plants inside and out.  It was really hard to NOT shop for plants and great garden and home accessories but get down to the business of sketching.

So I placed myself near the front entrance in the greenhouse so I could be aware of the few who said they might join me.  Near the collection of indoor ferns on sale.  After getting started on a small vignette at the edge of the plant table I greeted a previous student of mine, Cheryl who was happy for an excuse to get out sketch, shop and catch up.  You know this is also a great social event, if others hadn't been on summer vacation several others said they would have come.  Here's a photo of the ferns from my iphone:

I actually sat a little lower than this view when I did the above sketch.  The day went from threatening clouds to sunny skies so I opted to stay in the greenhouse.   I next moved on the Bonsai plant area which I love, and found a really neat asian garden lantern.  Since I'm on a quest to learn pen and ink sketching, I'm currently leaching myself this thru a 75 Day Sketch Challenge.  Only Ink is allowed, no pencil underneath  just ink.  I started this on June the 28th and will end it on Sept. 10th.  Each day you have to sketch something in your journal for 75 days.  I figure this would make me practice a more sure line, since it can't be erased or camouflaged by adding color.  Brenda Swenson started this challenge on her blog at:  brendaswenson.blogspot.com/    She's a water color and ink sketcher and does some really great work.  So as I bungle thru sketching with a micron pen in a Dick Blick ink sketchbook I received as a promotion, I'm learning to shade, hatch and double hatch my way thru the challenge.  I hope by day 75 it gets easier and faster and maybe a tiny bit better.  (By the way I'm going to have to check out this sketchbook more as it does not show bleed thru, is smooth for the pen and it's soft grey sheets would take some white pencil for highlights. After the challenge that is. )

I actually love journaling, travel journaling and working my way thru new challenges.  Sketchbooks need only be for you, not shared or publicized but enjoyed.  Getting out my first sketches always makes me feel better about how far I have come on my art journey.  Danny Gregory, author of "An Illustrated Life" and "An Illustrated Journey" encourages folks to journal, and document, but most of all enjoy the process.   Although many do so in watercolor and pen, I choose to mainly work in my beloved colored pencil, but still I can see the use of ink when called for and definitely for the script part of the page.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend, whether on not you observed World Sketch Day or not.  The next one should be in October this year as they seem to do 4 per year.  Grab your sketchbook and whatever your favorite media or just a regular pencil and try it.  I know next time I'm planning on making it past lunchtime before I cave in and shop!  ;-) Keep it colorful!

Gloria
And her new plant adoptees spent the rest of the day in her garden and conservatory getting acquainted.......