In January, my best friends and I went to see The Complete Frida Kahlo exhibit in San Diego (which is now extended to June 8th!) It is an exhibit which shows 123 replicas of her work in the exact sizes and style. I have to warn you. It is a lot of art to look at. I spent almost 4 hours there. I love Frida Kahlo's work because she freely and openly told the world about her life and pain through her art. Her portraits hold so much meaning and heart. I left there absolutely overwhelmed and inspired. But I didn't know how to take what I saw and incorporate it into my own art. That is when my best friend, Lydia, gave me the idea to do a series of self-portraits in the same style and poses of Frida, and replace her pets with my Mizzles. I loved this idea.
It kind of worked out for me that my Intermediate/ Advanced Students were about to begin a colored pencil self-portrait. This was the perfect opportunity for me to create this artwork while creating an example for my students. It has been a few years since I've created anything in colored pencil. I forgot how much I love to blend and burnish.
I took it to my Huntington Beach Art League meeting and entered it into the drawing category. I am happy to report that it received an Honorable Mention.
Instead of posting all of the progression photos I took, I thought it might be nice to watch them in a video slide show. The song is called Beautiful Things by Gungor. It is one of my favorite songs at the moment.
This has definitely been one of my most favorite projects. I already have an idea of my next portrait, but it will have to wait a bit. I have to get back to working on my book.
As always, my weekend was busy with the school garden and hiking. Sprinkled throughout this weekend, I created a few drawings and worked on a colored illustration. I took a few of the garden illustrations I drew and combined them. I am using Prismacolor and General's watercolor pencils and outlining with pen.
I woke up today feeling amazing. I can't explain why. I don't understand it myself considering my neighbor upstairs made so much noise that I had very little sleep. But this morning I was all smiles. I took a break from the sketchbook project and allowed my creative brain a little time to unwind. In addition, I decided to recreate an illustration I have been working on. I have been working with watercolor pencils for a few months now. I am not a fan of watercolor because I lack the patience of waiting for areas to dry. But I absolutely love the watercolor pencils. I still need to experiment with them more. This is my second illustration in watercolor pencil and it is still in progress.
I need to learn to have more patience with the watercolor pencil because I tend to lay down more color than I really need. Because I do this, it is preventing me from getting strong contrasts in my values. I have also noticed that using the watercolor pencils changes the appearance of my squirrel. After I began adding the watercolor pencil to the drawing, I had realized this drawing would have been so much sweeter or cuter if the squirrel's head was tilted up towards the Mizzle. I guess I could still change it since I haven't used too much color on the squirrel, but I might risk ruining the texture of the paper. I might just leave it as is.
For today's drawing, I thought I would replicate this illustration and make that change in the squirrel. I have noticed in the past that when I try to replicate a drawing it doesn't have the same look or feel. But I feel this time was pretty successful.
My favorite media to work in is Prismacolor colored pencils and pen and ink. I find it fascinating how what medium you choose to work in changes the look of the artwork. It even changes the feel of the characters. I just want to cuddle with the characters in the watercolor piece, but find myself smiling more at the ink drawing. The latter has a more whimsical feel, but that could be because I haven't finished the first drawing. Depending on what I place or not place in the background could change that feel.
