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Fuji apple
8 x 10

Well. THIS is different, isn't it? I know. This is how I really draw, really. This is how I LIKE to draw, when just left to my own devices. Oh yes, I love to render and do detailed drawings and paintings, and to make tight tight tight little works of art.

But I also love to draw like this.

I used to work in this style all the time with charcoal and pastels when I did a lot of figure drawing. I did some still lifes too, but then got tired of pastels because they were so hard to store (the finished drawings I mean, not the pastels themselves.) They were a bother.

So I here I am now, finally, going back to my sanded pastel paper, but this time trying it with colored pencils. And you know what, I LOVE IT.
This was done with Polychromos on a sheet of Le Carte. The paper is a kind of putty color. The drawing is not nearly as bright in real life as it looks here on the screen. Its colorful, yes, but not backlit.

I sprayed it with a few coats of Grumbacher Matte fixative, and it was sealed well enough to be able to put it on the scanner with no smearing. Couldn't do that with pastels!

So I think I'll do more 'o these.

This felt really good to cut loose and draw like this, because I've been fiddling with my website the past couple of days, doing all the tedious html tagging and optimizing for search engines and all of that. It can make a person insane.

Anyway. I put it up for sale on the other 'art for sale blog'.

Its still hot here, and I'm still in a cranky mood, but a much less cranky one since I drew this.

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I went out and stimulated the economy today by visiting my local art shop!
I came home with an assortment of lovely sanded pastel papers to try with my colored pencils.
I used to use sanded paper all the time with pastels (see the piece above) but haven't tried it with colored pencils. So I bought a few sheets of different brands to try.


I thought I had some Pastelbord in my bin of Ampersand boards, but nope. I have everything else, but not that! So had to get one.



Next was a sheet of Sennelier La Carte paper.




Then a sheet of Colorfix.




I'm really intrigued with this primer you can paint onto just about any clean surface to make a "pastelable" surface. I'd like to try in on canvas, or Ampersand hardboards. But I'll try the paper first and see what happens.



Then I also bought a sheet of Wallis paper. I got the Museum grade, figured why not. If I create a masterpiece, might as well have it be on good paper!



I also have a sheet of Sabretooth sitting in my file drawer that I need to try. It has a much rougher tooth to it, so not sure how it will be with pencils, but I'll give it a go.




Hopefully in the next week I'll be able to do some experimenting. In between knitting. And drawing other things. You know how it is.

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I'm just mad because its only MAY. Its not supposed to get this hot until next month at least. We brace ourselves for it in July and August. I feel like I'm being cheated out of the last few weeks of lovely Spring.

I did this piece back when I was seriously into pastels (as into them then as I'm into colored pencils now). I thought I'd found my medium. Period. I loved loved loved them to death. And still do. BUT. I did not love the pastel dust that I was breathing and which was on everything in the house it seemed, and I also didn't love how my fingertips were getting worn down as I smudged and blended them into the sanded pastel paper. OW. Yes. Rubbing my fingers on sanded paper. Not good. I'm surprised I still have fingerprints.

The candy corn kind of reminded me of the pyramids, so ha ha, that's the joke here. It just looks exactly like what today feels like.
Bleah. Hope its cooler where you are, or that you at least have good air conditioning.

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It’s spring Down Under, and the gardeners of Melbourne are out in abundance, reminding me of the heartwarming account of a multicultural community garden, Paul Fleischman’s lovely Seedfolks.

Gina Biancarosa, friend and literacy expert, is a big fan of the Newbery Award-winning children’s author, and Seedfolks is her “absolute favorite” Fleischman book. “Just so well written, and even though it takes place in America, there are a number of immigrant characters in it.” She points out the Christian Science Monitor’s comment on Fleischman’s website, “The size of this slim volume belies the profound message of hope it contains.” Here’s an account of what Seedfolks inspired one young reader to do. Here’s an excerpt from Seedfolks and Fleischman’s story of how he came to write it.

Now for a few other books on community gardens… In Jorge Argueta’s bilingual text, Xochitl and the Flowers, Xochitl and her family, El Salvadorans new to San Francisco, turn a garbage heap behind their apartment into a nursery for plants. Here’s PaperTigers’ interview with author and illustrator Carl Angel. In Our Community Garden, by Barbara Pollak, also set in San Francisco, kids make a feast of burritos, stir-fry, and other ethnic specialties, using foods they’ve grown in their community garden. The Garden of Happiness, YA author Erika Tamar’s first picture book, is the story of a multicultural community garden in New York City.

Inspired? Right. For ideas on how to use Seedfolks in the classroom or how to start a school garden, click here and scroll down. Happy gardening!

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