Getting there

With Molly’s help, I'm starting to see the logic of the color application with this medium. It’s a curious mix of putting down certain lights, and then building up from dark to light in other places. I hope I can explain it better when fall semester rolls around.
    Molly thought my main problem was that I wasn’t using the pencils thickly enough.
    I still don’t have the hang of skin tones.

A moon picture is coming soon.

Good golly Miss Molly...

...she sure loves to draw! Molly is my very dear friend who, in addition to being my partner in crime for many adventures, was and will always be one of my drawing teachers. Every year, Molly comes up to my house (we live a little ways apart) and we sit and catch up and draw for the day. She is coming this week, and because of Covid, we are masking and drawing outside, but at least we still get to do it!
    Last year, I was envying Molly's illustrations in colored pencil for a book of poetry about bugs that that she has been working on. Molly is a master drawer and illustrator. I'm pretty sure that statement included the sentence "I wish I could do that". Molly looked up and said, ok, here! Try it! And she proceeded to give me a lesson.
    This time, since I made the (hopefully not rash) decision to assign colored pencils for my ARTS 101 classes this fall, I'm going into our session prepared with my recent efforts so she can help me figure out where I'm going wrong, and a new drawing that I can work on under her supervision.
    The new one is another little sketch I did of the Wheatland Music Festival kid buskers. This guy helped himself to one of our folding chairs in front of our tent and started strumming away. He was playing with all his heart, but wasn't really making any chords. So, to save my sanity, I went over and taught him how to play an e minor chord. It made a big difference in the atmosphere around our tent, I can tell you that.
    The colored one is my practice attempt on copy paper. Molly will have her teaching work cut out for her!

First Try

This is one of my first tries at colored pencil. It is not a model of control. 

About a year ago, I wanted to do a series of pieces based on the child buskers at Wheatland. I flirted with colored pencils then, but gave up to paint instead. This time I'm going to stick with it, and this little image will be my marker for improvement.

I just read that Wheatland is cancelled this year, so maybe I can help keep the Happy Wheatland spirit alive in this small way, until we can all meet again.

Plan B

Well, it's June, and while I'm usually in the mental state of my 9 year old self (making art, going outside and playing music like no one is watching), this year my mind is on the fall already. 

     Switching over to all online classes this spring was not a pleasure. Not having face to face lessons really sucked the joy out of teaching art, I can tell you that.

     Now, assuming I have classes to teach and we figure out ways to do it safely, I have to build in a Plan B for my classes, in case we have to go into quarantine again. Which means I have to have a way to teach color that will suit everyone, and it has to be sa medium students can easily do at home.

     To that end, I hauled off and ordered colored pencils for the class, instead of our normal route of pastels and watercolor. 

      Here's the rub: I don't know a lot about them. And, the books and videos I've seen don't discuss color theory, and so how they are creating the values doesn't match up with the rules I use everyday.

    Until, Ta Da! I found this book:

  The description says that it uses color like the Old Masters, which means there is an underpainting and shadows are constructed using complementary colors. Just what I've been looking for! I have to wait six more days to get it. But I think it will be my ticket to a coherent teaching strategy. And maybe a whole new medium for my personal work :)