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Hi everyone!

April has arrived...let spring begin.

As I type this on April 4th, it is snowing here in Ottawa. The long range forecast looks good for the next week. We live in hope!

There is lots to cover this month.

I am so exited to bring you a new feature to the newsletter. I am starting a section where I give someone feedback. Sandi Fletcher-McGuire has generously agreed to be the first volunteer. I know you will enjoy her painting of Jessica. I will tell you more on how you can get some feedback a little later.

www.teresamallenstudio.com

First up I want to tell you about some changes to the classes schedule. Since my last newletter, a new Intro. class has been added.

Introduction to Coloured Pencil is now being offered later this month over three mornings: Monday April 21, Wednesday the 23rd and Friday the 25th. Please note that these dates are weekdays.There is still time to register so if you are interested, please contact me. Introduction to Coloured Pencil is still being offered in June during Saturday mornings.

Introduction to Coloured Pencil: Weekday mornings of April 21, 23 and 25. Also running June 7, 14, 21, Saturday mornings.

Coloured pencil artists are such nice people! I recently met a charming woman while purchasing art supplies. Sandi was picking up some pencils from open stock and so was I. We started chatting and I asked her to send me pictures of her work sometime. I love seeing coloured pencil art. Sandi sent me a portrait she had recently finished and I emailed her some feedback. I later got the idea that Sandi's painting would make a great start to this new section. I asked if I could share her work with all of you in this newsletter and she generously agreed.

To start with I thought it would be fun if you could meet Sandi so I asked her to tell us a little about herself. This is what she had to say:

I have been drawing cartoons for about 2 years, portraits for approx. 1 year, coloured pencil 9 months(?) My Father taught me how to paint landscapes with acrylics as a teen. I stopped all forms of art in my early twenties when I started a career in nursing after getting my RN and had time for little else. I went back to school and worked as a library technician at Nortel until I stayed home after the birth of my second child. Now that my 4 children are in school (youngest 5, oldest 12) at least part of the day I felt a strong pull to use some of the artistic energy that was building inside me. I started by trying my hand at quilting, learning to play the piano, volunteer work teaching and co-ordinating childrens programs at church, cycling. All of those things were wonderful, but something was definately missing.

I started by drawing portraits of animals and people in graphite a year ago February as a way to pass time at Camp Fortune while my family skied. I was using coloured pencils for my cartoons. When I learned of their versatility I picked up books on coloured pencil drawing and a handful of Prismacolor Premier pencils. (Prior to that I was just using Laurentien school pencils for the cartoons.) For better or worse my livingroom is now knee deep in coloured pencils supplies and I grab every spare minute I can to add to whatever picture happens to be out on my desk. The picture I sent to you was the third coloured portrait I've done.

I found myself standing in the grocery store a while back holding a star fruit up to the light, examining the shape, colour, contours, thinking about how I would draw it, what colours I would choose and how I could use it to compose a picture, sniffing it (?). At least until I saw people staring at me oddly. This isn't the first time I've been caught deep in thought over something I've seen and received odd looks and/or comments. I can't seem to go through a day without thinking about how I'd draw something I come across in coloured pencil. What colours I'd use and how I'd tackle certain textures.

I spend a lot of time in coffee shops, especially in Wesboro and Moca Loca in Aylmer. I feed off of the artistic energies that are oozing out of these places. I love aquariums and this is a major hobby in our household. I crochet alot, knit a little, and quilt once in a blue moon. I have had a cartoon accepted by an aquarium magazine and signed the contract, but am waiting to see if it will actually be published. I still love cycling with my husband and still play the piano occasionally. My kids take up the remainder of my time and they as well as children of friends are the main subjects of my drawings.

Please note that you can see images of the 'Jessica' portrait in progress on Sandi's blog. Notice how large the orginal is! If you would like to contact Sandi to tell her how wonderful her painting is or to discuss aquariums or to ask how she has time to do all of this while raising four young children :-) you can reach her at smcguire@magma.ca.

Here is Sandi's portrait of Jessica along with my feedback.

Isn't this piece wonderful?! Jessica is such an adorable little girl and Sandi has done a fantastic portrait.

Now while this is just the third c.p. piece that Sandi has done, don't let this discourage you if your first efforts are not so frameworthy! Remember that Sandi had already been working in graphite and she also had some art experience in acrylics as a teen.

My first impression when I opened her attachment was 'Wow, She did a great job! This painting is fantastic.' I told Sandi to pat herself on the back because first impressions really count! I was immediately struck by the overall quality of the piece. I could tell she had invested many hours into the work. Her efforts paid off! She has mastery in many areas and her work comes across as confident.

There were several things that struck me right away that I really liked. FIrst of all, I really liked the job she did on Jessica's hair. Absolutely wonderful. She did a great job with the highlight on her bangs. I also like how Sandi drew chunks of hair or sections, as opposed to feeling like she had to draw every single strand. No doubt Sandi feels like she drew every single hair! I really love all the colours that were used in the hair. Very creative and very beautiful. Brown hair doesn't need to be drawn with just brown pencils.

Notice how the colours used in the hair were picked up in the brick background. This creates wonderful colour harmony in the piece. If you are wondering what I mean, think about this: look closely at the background. Is this the way the wall would have really looked? The answer is no but our brains read it as brick even though it isn't the colour we are used to. That is the beauty of a well drawn object. If the drawing and the values are right you have the freedom to change the colours. This is a simple way to create colour harmony. Take colours from your subject and add them to your background. For someone who has worked so much in graphite, Sandi has a wonderful natural sense and understanding of colour. (But if you don't, relax - it can be learned :-) ...usually someone just needs examples like this to start to get the idea).

Notice how Sandi used a looser stroke technique in the background. This allowed her to work faster in the background. Also, the contrast with the more controlled stroke found in the subject helps Jessica become the focal point.

I like the composition of the piece, that is I like how Jessica is to the right of the center. This makes for a more interesting work.

Sandi did a great job on the fabric of the girl's top. Notice the shadow lines, especially along the neckline's scoop on the right side and along her flesh at her arm on the right. This sort of detail helps the top to not look like a cut and paste job. It looks like it is actually being worn by a person.

Something else that impressed me is how Sandi wasn't hesitant to create dark values. Putting dark areas in a portrait is a scary thing for some people to do. Notice how dark she went in the areas on either side of the girl's cheeks. She has dark lash lines and she created lovely depth of colour in her blue eyes. I would guess that this confidence with value comes from Sandi's past working with graphite. With graphite, the main way to suggest form is through the manipulation of value. Obviously you can't use colour.

Now I am going to get real nit-picky with this piece and I will mention some areas that Sandi could consider tweaking.

I notice that the left side of Jessica's face (my left as I look at the painting) and the right side don't really match. Now I don't mean to suggest that a person's face is perfectly symmetrical because it isn't but if I were to cover the left half of the face, I would see a different Jessica and vise versa. Here is what I mean, first of all I find that the left side of her face, specifically her cheek needs to be a tiny bit fuller. Her cheek is rounder on the right side and I am guessing that the right side is more her 'likeness'. What this translates to is that if you focus on the left side, she looks older. As a child ages, they quickly lose this roundness and by making a slightly leaner cheek, you end up aging a child.

Also, on the the left side, the eye's placement is off when compared to the right side. Again, I think that the right side is probably more her likeness. The left eye appears to recede. Sandi could tweak this by dropping the lower part of the left eye. Her left eye is more narrow than the right and by dropping it she would widen the eye and it would match the other side more. Sandi probably ran into this trouble due to the fact that the girl has a slightly angled head position. Notice how she isn't looking straight on into the camera. This makes for an interesting pose but it is very difficult to draw. We tend to want to draw the face as though she were looking at us straight on. This is probably how the left side and the right side got a bit out of sync. This difficult angle was probably also the reason that the nose and the chin got a bit out of alignment. Given the facial expression, the nose should be right above the middle of the chin. Getting the eyes right can be tricky and I have made a similar mistake in the past. Probably everybody does at least once!

I found the dark shapes in the pupil to be a bit distracting. If this were my painting, I would round the black shapes even if it meant losing some highlights. This is quite subjective though. Perhaps Sandi stylized the black shape and she loves the pupils and in that case I would leave them alone! Always, temper someone else's opinion of your work with your own tastes, style and intention. Always!

I would suggest that Sandi darken the values in both corners of each eye. This will help the eyes curve more. Here we have to override our brain as it keeps insisting that the whites of the eye are just that - white. Next time you look in the mirror check out how much colour there is to the 'white' of the eye. Of course we wouldn't expect young Jessica's eyes to be bloodshot or anything but still the corners will have quite a bit of colour.

I think Sandi has done a great job with the skin tones. For someone so new to coloured pencils she exhibits real mastery of the medium. Again, I am really impressed with her confident use of colour and the use of rich dark values. Essentially the things I mentioned have to deal most with the slight angle of the head and how that makes for a difficult drawing. If Sandi has used a quality print making paper such as Stonehenge, she will be able to lift colour to make a few adjustments. Or if she wishes she can leave the portait alone and then carry this knowledge onto the next piece. We do learn from every painting and honestly the stuff I picked out would probably not even be seen by viewers.

Finally, I wanted to congratulate Sandi on capturing the girl's expression. This really isn't an easy thing to do. The expression is revealed a lot in the mouth and it does come across to the viewer. Well done!

Sandi has a real passion for coloured pencil art and a real desire to become the best artist she can be. She has done such a fantastic job on this piece and I can't wait to see some more of her work. Thank you very much Sandi for sharing your work and for agreeing to be our first volunteer.

Okay, now it is your turn! Is there something you would like some feedback on? Do you have a work that you would like me to review? Perhaps you have a piece started that you would like some advice on. Maybe you have a photo picked out and you are wondering if it would make a good painting. We learn from following another's process and this feedback section is being offered as a way for viewers to learn from each other. If you have something you would like help with, don't be shy. Email me a photo or a scanned image and we will go from there. I look forward to hearing from you - the May issue needs your input!

If you haven't visited the Colored Pencil Society of America's website yet, you can find it at www.cpsa.org. To view amazing coloured pencil art, visit the 'galleries' section.

Cynthia Haase is the Membership Director for the CPSA. Cindy does a brilliant job of dealing with the close to 2000 members. Considering that the executive members are volunteers, they deserve our gratitude for all the hours they put into running this organization. I 'met' Cindy when I was having difficulty receiving some of my mail from the organization. Cindy was helpful, courteous, professional and basically just a joy to deal with. I encourage you to visit her coloured pencil website at www.chaase-art.com. For those of you who are quilters, or just keen on fiber art, have a look at her fiber art gallery (also on this website). Cindy has two fantastic blogs as well. Her coloured pencil blog, 'Color On!' is found at: http://cynhaase.blogspot.com. This is a great blog for those of you who are curious about using coloured pencils with other media. Cindy details her experiences with underpainting in Neocolors II, Inktense and markers in her step by step 'works in progress'. It is a lot of fun to watch her paintings develop and you learn in the process. How cool is that? Cindy also has a fiber art blog, 'In Stitches' and it can be found at http://cyhaase1.blogspot.com.

The United Kingdom has a coloured pencil society and their website is www.ukcps.co.uk. To view art by the members and to read their bios, click on the Members' Galleries section. I would like to draw your attention to one of their artists, Richard Chumley Childs. His website is www.chumleysart.com. His painting entitled "Hope of Sepilok" was the winner of the Founders Prize for best UK Entry in the 2007 Exhibition. This piece is definitely worth looking at. Do view the step by step photos. Click on the final image, 65 hours, to see the work in detail. It may take a few seconds to download but it is worth it. I love to stare at the hair on left, imagining the patience and time that must have taken. Wow. I would recommend that portrait artists do not draw every hair but this example of hair is something else. What people can do with coloured pencil, never ceases to amaze me. In this newsletter, we have two examples of drawing hair, Richard Childs version and Sandi's. I love both renditions...Sandi takes a more painterly approach in that she suggests hair rather than attempts to draw each strand. Richard's version is more photorealistic in that he is keen to depict a lot of individual strands. Both are valid interpretations. There is no one right way to do this art stuff! Also, notice how Richard did a very realistic rendition of Sepilok's hair and face in his use of colour. Compare this to Jeanette Jobson's 'Eric' (featured in the March newsletter). Jeanette uses all sorts of wonderful colours to depict the young orangutan's hair. Again, there is no right or wrong here. It comes down to personal preference and expression. I work both ways, sometimes my images are very photorealistic and other times I add all sorts of colours that were not in the original image. I once did a portrait of a golden retriever. I had so much fun at the end adding all sort of colours to his fur that I had to stop as he was starting to look more like a Red Setter!

If you are in the Ottawa area, please note that the Ottawa Guild of Potters is hosting their spring show April 10th - 13th. Featuring the work of over 60 potters, this is a 'not to miss' event. It is a great opportunity to buy a wedding present or birthday gift. For all the details, visit www.ottawaguildofpotters.ca.

Also for folks in Ottawa...the Kanata Art Club Spring Show and Sale takes place Saturday April 26th and Sunday April 27th, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The location is St. Isidore's Parish Hall (on March Road). This is a fantastic show (if you like watercolour, there are a lot of watercolour artists exhibiting) and the prices are very reasonable. If you would like to buy some quality original art for your home at an affordable price, do plan to attend. There is free parking and refreshments.

I was recently asked if the different brands of coloured pencil could be used together. Absolutely! You can definitely use the different brands together, wax based or oil based - it doesn't matter. You can also use watercolour pencils (dry of course) if you wish.

Another question came in this month. Susan Grant in Ottawa asks: "How do you know when a piece is finished? I also find I tend to quit working on some drawings. Do you have any advice?"

Okay Susan, this one is a bit tricky as I am not looking at a specific piece but I can say that in general most coloured pencil artists quit a bit too early, especially in their early days with coloured pencil. There are probably a couple of reasons for this. First of all c.p. is a rather slow medium. By the time you get a piece finished you have probably invested more hours than you want to count. Bottom line, you are done...even if the artwork isn't! Also, when a piece is nearing completion it starts to look really good. It is finally coming together and if you show your work to family members or others, they are wowed and they tell you how wonderful it looks. Heck, why not frame it now? It's done right? Well, maybe and maybe not...

Here is some advice: First of all check your values. When artists quit too early, what is usually missing is that they haven't pushed their values far enough. Are your darks dark enough? Check the areas in shadow. I am always amazed at how much more a painting develops by tweaking the values. Remember Sandi's rich values in the painting above? It makes a huge difference when you spend the time to create strong values.

Once you have checked your values, have a critical look at your work as a whole. Does something strike you as missing? Maybe you need to emphasis a highlight that seems to have gotten lost, or you think the sky could use just a bit more colour...that sort of thing. Once you have made these changes, mount your work somewhere. If you have worked on paper, you can adhere it to the wall with some masking tape. I use masking tape referred to as 'painters tape'. It is sold in hardware stores as it is the tape that wall painters use to outline edges. You can also find it at your art supply store. It is less tacky and it won't remove the paint on your walls. You can also prop your work up on a shelf. Bottom line, just put it somewhere that you can see it. Look at it for several days. Sometimes things pop out that need adjusting. If you suspect that a work is finished but you are not sure, you can also put it aside for awhile. Come back to it later and when you look at it with 'fresh' eyes, you will be able to be more objective about the work.

Perhaps the piece really is done. Do you find yourself tweaking tiny little things that no one else would ever see? At this point you are overworking the painting. Stop, let it go, you are finished.

Quiting work is a different issue. Again, there are probably a few different reasons here but I think a major reason is that often an artist has 'bitten off more than they could chew'. The artist has chosen too difficult a subject to render and the piece starts to overwhelm them. It isn't a bad thing to set aside a work that is too challenging for your current skill level. You can always come back to it later. Beginners often choose very difficult subjects and this can be defeating. This is a natural mistake because how can you possibly know that, for example, all the glass and water reflections in the subject are going to be quite challenging? If someone is new to this, sometimes the only way to know that you are in over our head is to, well, get in over your head! Eventually we learn. If this is what is happening to you, perhaps you just need to simplify your subject matter for awhile.

Sometimes people get a great idea but have a poor photo reference and they quit simply because they can't see the objects really well in the picture. Or you might have a great photo with tons of luscious detail, but it will take many many hours to translate into a good c. p. piece. You get started on the piece and then you quit because it ends up being more than you bargained for. Learning to look at a photo or an image from life with this sort of stuff in mind just takes awareness and some practice. In my blog entry for Thursday March 6th, I show a piece that I underestimated several years ago. The pine cones went well but once I hit the pine needles, I knew that I was in over my head. So I set it aside, for quite awhile! It happens to all of us. :-)

Sometimes people quit because they just get bored. Perhaps they did all the interesting bits in the painting and now they are bored by the rest of it. They want to move on to something else. It may be that they hit a part of the painting that needs a lot of time and they just don't want to knuckle down to do the hard work. I am afraid the only remedy for this is to exercise some discipline to push through one's resistance. If this is what you are doing, consider all the time you have already invested in the piece from selecting your subject to executing a drawing. Maybe that will help you press on and finish.

Maybe you quit because you think you have made a mess of things. Why not persevere a little longer? I think most paintings have an ugly stage and if you are a new artist you might not realize that if you just keep going, the piece will start to come together.

At least save all of your unfinished work. That way they will be there for you should you ever wish to complete them.

One day I am satisfied, the next day I find it all bad: still, I hope that some day I will find some of them good... (Claude Monet)

If you have questions for the newsletter or something for the feedback section, please contact me at teresa@teresamallenstudio.com.

(If you would prefer to not receive a newsletter in future, please email me. Put 'remove' in the subject line and you will be deleted from my mailing list.)

Teresa Mallen Studio	Coloured Pencil Artist
	www.teresamallenstudio.com