More new crayons

Last year at this time, I wrote a post about the childhood thrill that a new box of crayons would bring. (I'd just received my set of 132 Prismacolor pencils for Christmas!) Well, Prismacolor recently added 18 new colors, so guess what I got from my husband this year? Since I also got an annoying cold for Christmas—I'll take a lump of coal next year, Santa—today was the first day that I felt like playing. I just had to start by making swatches—the ones I made last year have been invaluable—but since these won't fit into my original pages, there may be another swatchapalooza happening really soon.

It's hard to believe that 132 colors didn't already cover all the bases, but a few of these are really nice additions, even if they don't have great names. The "Sap Green Light" is beautiful—when you do a lot of botanical drawings, lots of really good, natural greens are important. And the "Dioxazine Purple Hue" nicely fills a gap in the deep violet range. There are three "neon" colors, which are new for me. I didn't think I'd care for them, but as I did the swatches, I was kind of intrigued:  the color really jumps off  the paper, and they'll be fun to experiment with; I'm curious to see how they layer and get along with the other colors.

So, tomorrow, at long last, the drawing resumes. It's been a busy month, but I've just packed away the last of my Christmas decorations. Happily, my New Year's weekend consists solely of fresh Dungeness crab...and fresh new pencils.

Illustration Friday: Stripes...and Selznick!

Every  now and then I need to take a break from my drawings of botanicals and everyday objects, and after doing that turban squash, it was time! For this week's Illustration Friday topic, stripes, I decided to do another in my series of little trompe l'oeil drawings, using mostly white pencil on black paper. It's a complete departure for me, and a fun mental exercise, figuring out what's white and what's black. Here are the three together, you can see the original posts here and here):

But while were chatting about black and white drawings, I'm dying to tell you about my amazing evening a couple of weeks ago: Brian Selznick was in town talking about and signing his incredible new book, Wonderstruck, which is two stories intertwined, one told in words, one told in pictures. I've written about him before, especially my love for his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. If you ever get a chance to hear Brian speak, you have to go—he's an amazing speaker and storyteller; everyone in the school auditorium was enthralled. While he spoke, we were treated to a fabulous screening of images from the book, his writing and drawing process, and the trailer for Martin Scorcese's new film, "Hugo". Brian answered tons of questions, and shared some fascinating things: 

There are hundreds of pencil drawings in these two books. He works really small (about 4 x 5 ) with a mechanical pencil on watercolor paper, and then the drawings are enlarged for the books. (He has an exquisite way of cross-hatching...I try not to drool on the pages.)

He decided to tell one story in pictures after watching a documentary about deaf people. (He has learned to sign really well; there was a deaf student in the audience and he chatted with her afterward.)

As a child, he was obsessed with the wolf diorama at NYC's Museum of Natural History. The wolves and the museum are important parts of Wonderstruck. 

He said that Martin Scorcese was unbelievably faithful to his book, and that the movie uses 3D technology in a new, sophisticated, artful way. When he visited the movie set, he saw that Scorcese, as well as most of the cast and crew kept his book with them  throughout the filming.

As he toured the set, built to look like a Parisian train station, Brian noticed how perfect a certain wall grate looked. He asked the production designer, the talented Dante Ferretti, where they found the grate, saying, "It looks just like the one I drew!" Ferretti answered, "It is the one you drew!" He was amazed that they had literally brought the smallest details of his drawings to life.
It was such fun meeting him as he signed my books.

(He had on the coolest silver leather shoes.)

I could go on and on, but I'll let you experience the genius of Brian Selznick firsthand. Check out his website here and the movie trailer here. It opens November 23...I can't wait!!

Swatching, scanning and shooting

Well, so far this week, the Illustration Friday topic of "surrender" has me about ready to do just that.  So, I've decided to show you the swatches that I made for my new set of Prismacolors.

I had looked for a pre-made blank chart online, but the one offered on the Prismacolor website has the color name printed right on the little pencil shape that you're supposed to color in.  Well, that just irritated me, so I laser-printed out a simple grid on some Strathmore Bristol, and made my own chart.  The hard part was deciding which color would go where.

Before making the final chart, I made some quickie swatches, cut them all out and played with the arrangement before taping them in place. I probably spent more time on that than most normal people would, but as I've mentioned before, I find that kind of thing to be highly entertaining.  In fact, I loved it when Paula Pertile referred to her recent swatch-making marathon as a swatching bender.  Such a perfect description, as there really is something rather decadent about allowing oneself the luxury of playing like this.  As I colored each little gradient rectangle, I tried to make the blends seamless.  (You can definitely tell that I started with the greys, since I got better as I went!)

My reason for making these charts, other than to have the color reference, is to use them as a sort of baseline so that I can improve my scanning and digital photography skills.  I love being able to make digital captures of my very non-digital art, but the endless number of options and variables involved in scanning/shooting, viewing and printing an image makes my head spin.  I've been scanning most things, but my son gave me a very cool copy stand to use when photographing my work, and I'm just starting to play with it.  I'd love to hear from other colored pencil artists...do you prefer to scan or shoot?  What equipment/settings do you use?   I'm going to be scanning and shooting these charts like crazy, and comparing the results...should be fun!!

This just in...the pencil geekfest continues!  The folks over at pencils.com saw my drawings on Pencil Revolution last week, and were kind enough to feature me today as this week's Monday Pencil Artist.  So nice!  Both of these sites seem eager to feature pencil artists, so feel free to contact them if you're interested.  The blog editor at pencils.com even asked if I would be interested in doing a product review of their colored pencils.  I told him that I'd be very happy to - artists always like trying new toys!  So, if that comes to pass, I'll let you know what I think of them.  Hmmm...do I see more swatches in my future?

Pencil Revolution!

"Alphabet" by Dalton Ghetti

You can't stop looking at it, can you? A couple of weeks ago, while googling the artist that created this marvel (more about him in a minute), I happened upon a website that is tailor-made for pencil geeks like me: Pencil Revolution.  I left a comment, and soon received an email from its editor.  He mentioned that they used to regularly feature pencil artists, but hadn't done so in a while, and asked if I would allow them to post some of my drawings! Well, I was very humbled by the request because there are so many wonderful pencil artists out there (more about them in a minute). But then, it occurred to me that this is one of the wonderfully serendipitous things about blogging: you bump into some really intriguing people as you mosey around the blogosphere.  Take Illustration Friday, for example -  I know that exchanging comments does not make me bosom buddies with another artist, but there's a kinship that starts to grow when you appreciate one another's creative efforts.

It seems that I discover another wonderful colored pencil artist every day, but there are a few whose new posts I eagerly anticipate.  One is Paula Pertile.  Her posts feel a bit like you're chatting with a friend over coffee, and she draws like a dream - I could stare at her drawings of candy (the ribbon candy, the caramels, the chocolates...) for hours.  Another is Leslie Hawes. She "travels" around the world via Google Street View and creates the loveliest drawings of  these locations.  Is that a wonderful use of technology or what?

Now, back to the fabulous Dalton Ghetti.  I've been enthralled by his work ever since I read about him in TIME for Kids one day last spring when I was substitute teaching.  He carves miniature wonders in the graphite at the tip of a pencil. Unbelievable. This is a link to his work and bio that was provided in the Pencil Revolution post. In such a hi-tech world, Dalton Ghetti's unabashedly lo-tech art just makes me happy.

So, thank you, Pencil Revolution, for "inviting me in" when I stopped by. Anyone who says that the internet is impersonal certainly hasn't been strolling through the same neighborhoods that I have visited since I started blogging a short while ago.

New crayons

When I was a child, one of my favorite Christmas presents was the brand-new box of 64 Crayola crayons that we'd receive each year. I loved everything about them: the way the box broke open along the perforated top, the smell of them, the feel of them, and those color names...periwinkle, maize, salmon. (One of my most treasured estate sale finds is this mint condition, unopened box from way back when...before they changed some of the original color names. I'm such a crayon geek that I've only opened it from the bottom.)

So, this Christmas, when my family gave me a set of 132 colored pencils (every color Prismacolor makes!), I felt the exact same excitement. I loved opening the lid of the tin, seeing those pencils all lined up inside, and reading their color names (there's no maize but there is a periwinkle and a salmon pink). Prismacolor doesn't package them in color groups, for some reason, so this is how they looked:

(There are other wonderful brands of artists' colored pencils, such as Derwent and Faber-Castell, but I've always been partial to Prismacolor. The color lays down smoothly, they blend well, they're widely available and the whole pencil barrel is colored. I've tried other brands, but when only the top half-inch of the pencil shows you what color it is, I find myself spending way too much time looking for the right color.)

Yesterday, the fun began - sorting, sharpening, and organizing . There's something so satisfying about arranging art supplies by color. I kept thinking back to my freshman year in college: I was studying interior design, and we were required to buy a pack of 500 Pantone colored papers for our design projects. It was no small investment, so we handled our boxes like gold. One night, I decided, along with a couple of fellow design students, to lay out every single one of the papers on the floor of the common room of our dorm forming a huge mosaic of color. We spent hours on it, happily debating how to sort  the colors, etc. Yesterday was a lot like that for me - should aqua go with the greens or the blues? Seashell pink is really more beige than pink, so should it live with the other neutrals? (I'm sure my husband thought I was taking this way too seriously.)

At long last, the three families of greys are in my canvas roll case, and the rest are happily residing in glass jars on my work table. I'm ready to draw. Or, I may just sit here and stare at them for a while longer...