Just Add Water

Recently I began experimenting with water and pastels.  This is a huge step for me, because I do NOT like to experiment.  I like to know what my materials are going to do, and then I can try to make them do it.  Flat out experimentation uses up paper and pastels and may result in something I don’t like!  But I recently became intrigued with the idea of using water in a pastel drawing.

In July of 2014, my father and I took a trip to Alaska.  It is a trip I’d been wanting to make for over 20 years, and for my father, it was the fiftieth state he’d visited.  We had a great time.

My father brought home a large, poster-sized photographic print of Mt. McKinley in a glorious pink and purple sunset.  He had it professionally framed, and it was stunning on his wall.  But one day in September of 2015, it accidentally got smashed.  Although the wooden frame remained largely unscathed, the glass shattered, and the shards scratched and even gouged the print.  He was not in a position to replace it, so he asked me to repair it.  The plan was to buy some cheap paint and have me touch it up.  Since my preferred medium is pastels, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that, but he was in earnest, so I agreed to try.

When I went to visit him in January 2016, I had not yet invested in the paints, but I had brought along my pastel pencils in anticipation of working on the cat drawing above.  Sadly, I got exactly zero work done on the cat, but it occurred to me that I might be able to use the pastel pencils to repair his photo.  After all, I had a wide range of colors to work with.  If I could get the pastels to adhere to the photo paper, I might just be able to pull it off!

Guess what.  Pastels don’t stick to poster sized photographic prints except where the print is so deeply gouged as to reveal the foam board underneath, and even then, the color still won’t carry all the way to the edge of the gouge.

But I remembered on my first set of pastels I ever bought, the Stabilo Carbothellos, it says on the pencil tin that they are water soluble.  Well, it says they’re “Aquarelle”, and I don’t speak French, but I had always wondered how one went about using water with pastels.  It doesn’t make sense to me.  So my father and I decided I would try using water with the pencils somehow in order to repair his photo.  After a little experimentation, I learned that by soaking the pencil tips in a little cup of water for a few seconds, it was possible to soften the “lead” of the pencil and get it wet enough to use as a sort of paintbrush to apply the color as necessary.

It worked!

I was able to fill in all the scratches, and even the gouge looks pretty good.  Well, you can definitely see some of the larger repairs if you walk up to the piece, but my dad is colorblind, so he can’t see the difference.  🙂

After that, I became very curious about using water with pastels and how I might go about it.  This drawing of Phantom (my cat, now passed on) was the first experiment I did with water and pastels.  I used a natural sponge to create the mottled background, and it turned out exactly the way I wanted.  I couldn’t have been more pleased!  Okay, so Phantom isn’t my best pet portrait, but you gotta cut me some slack.  It was drawn from an old grainy snapshot in which the cat is only about two inches high, and the drawing is 11 x 17″.  That’s okay.  I think it turned out well considering the shortcomings of the reference, and the background was a great learning experience.

The piece I am currently working on uses water much more extensively.  I have ideas now, and I’m curious to see how water can expand my horizons.

Copyright Laws

Where does an artist’s subject material come from?  You just google for an image you like, right?

Wrong.

Many people think that once something is on the internet, it’s up for grabs, but that’s not true.  In fact, any image is automatically protected by copyright as soon as it is created.  That means that that snapshot of your granny sitting in her recliner eating supper on the TV tray is already copyrighted without your having to take any action, though you can still register your copyright.  Although it’s a good idea to mark an image with a copyright notice, it is not necessary.  So when you do an internet search for an image, chances are it is illegal to use it for your own stuff.

So does this mean you have to to take all your photos yourself?  Thankfully, no.  You can purchase images from sites such as Shutterstock, but that can add up over time.  There are, however, other sites, such as Morguefile, which offer images for free to do with as you wish.  You can also do advanced searches on sites like Flickr or even Google to filter only images with specific usage licenses which allow you to commercially use or even modify the piece to suit your own needs.  In addition to resources like these, there are also a number of websites and Facebook groups dedicated to offering free photos for artists to use.  Once in a while, you can get really lucky, and a photographer will give you permission to use a particular image s/he has taken.  So when people find amazing images they want me to draw, this is often why I reject the idea.  Well, that and the fact that I have a long list of projects that I’ll never finish!

Okay, so what does the law really say?  If you want to read about American copyright law, this government site is written in language which is easy to understand.  In the meantime, it’s best to stick with references you’ve taken yourself or have written permission to use!

Spotlight — “Rand”

Rand Miller was the first color portrait of a person I had done in nearly thirty years.  Rand is the CEO of CyanWorlds, Inc. and co-creator of Myst, the best selling computer game from 1993 to 2002.

For many people, including me, Myst was more than just a game.  It was a world waiting to be explored, a story begging to be told, an adventure eager to happen.  Many of us adopted this world as our own, embracing the surrealistic beauty and grandeur, the hidden secrets, and the horrifying history we uncovered.  Many call its immersive environment home.

As a game, it was unprecedented.  Released on CD on September 24, 1993, Myst was the best selling PC game until it was finally overtaken by the Sims in 2002.  Its popularity caused sales of CD ROMs to increase dramatically.  At the time, it did not fit into any exisiting game category, so it created a whole new genre.  It was unparalleled in many ways.

Myst has since been updated as technology catches up to the vision Cyan had in the early 1990’s.  It was followed by four sequels, the MMOG Uru, and three novels.  In 2000, I helped found an annual gathering of Myst fans, called Mysterium, and I ran it until 2007, when it became apparent that it was time for someone else to take it over.  Mysterium attracts fans from around the world and still continues today.  Numerous artworks and other projects were inspired by the games and the company that created them.

This was one of those artworks, a tribute to Rand, the face of Cyan.  The games, the friends, the chat rooms, the books, the conventions…  The Myst universe has touched my life in many ways, and continues to be a part of my life.  And every once in a while, a piece of my art somehow ties back to it.

Currently, Cyan is working on a new game called Obduction.  It has the feel of Myst, but is an entirely different storyline.

How do I get the proportions right?

I am lucky enough to have always had a talent for drawing what I see… or close to it.  My freehand drawing is about 95% if I work really, really hard at getting my proportions right.  When drawing a landscape or a plant, or even certain animals, accuracy is less important.  But people and most animals really have to be fairly close to correctly proportioned to enable a  realistic style like mine, especially for pet portraits.  But luckily, there is the grid method.

Basically, the grid method involves laying a grid over a reference photo and drawing a similar grid on paper, though the squares may be different sizes in each grid.  So if the reference grid is eight squares by ten squares, the drawing will have an 8×10 grid on it as well.  The size of the squares will vary from artist to artist depending on preference.  I personally like a very precise drawing, so I have been using smaller grid squares for more precise detail, but recently I’ve begun using larger grid squares to allow a little more of my personal style to come through.

There is an iPad app called CopyIt Legacy which overlays a grid onto any photograph stored on the tablet (only within the app; not permanently affixed to the stored photo).  Full brightness on the iPad reveals all the detail, and it is possible to zoom in as much as 20x, which is occasionally useful.

The idea is that instead of drawing the whole picture, the artist draws what is in each square of the grid, one square at a time, which is often just one or a few lines.  Each line is carefully drawn, taking note of the angle and curve and where it starts and stops.  Halfway up the right side?  Three quarters?  By drawing each square, the picture comes into focus quite nicely.  Some care should be taken not to lose track of which is the current square, though, or the eraser will see as much use as the pencil!

If the grid is drawn directly onto the drawing paper, a light touch is best, because the grid will need to be erased later.  This is an acceptable method, but if the grid is drawn on a separate sheet of regular copy paper, little erasure is necessary.  Once everything looks like it’s in the right place, the rough drawing can be taped over the drawing paper with transfer paper in between (making sure the correct side is down on the transfer paper).  Retracing the rough drawing transfers the image to the drawing paper.  Voila!  It’s ready for color and detail!

Spotlight — “Out of the Shadows”

At some point, I got an idea to draw  a black cat on a black background.  At the time, I didn’t think to simply adapt a black cat into a black background.  I just had an image in my head of what I wanted it to be.  I looked and looked, but I couldn’t find the image I needed.

And then, one day, there was Cocoa.  She was perfect.  EXACTLY what I was looking for!

There are a few Facebook groups that generously offer copyright free photos for artists to use as reference.  Some of them have monthly contests.  This particular group offers two contests; a photo contest and an art contest.  The winning photo (determined by member votes) is displayed as the profile photo for the next month, AND it is the subject of the art contest for the next month.  The winning artwork becomes the group’s cover photo the following month.  Well, the rules have changed a little, but that’s how it used to work.  Anyway, when I saw this photo, I knew I was drawing it, whether it won or not.

Turns out, the photo of Cocoa was, in fact, one of the top three, so not only did I get to draw this cat I’d spent months waiting for, but I also got to enter it into the contest.  I was lucky enough to win with “Out of the Shadows”!  Okay, so all that means is that my art was the group’s cover photo for a month, but still, I won!  Happy Day!

“Out of the Shadows” hangs at my grooming shop and is not for sale.  No prints exist.

What Are Pastels?

All of my color work these days is with soft pastels.  There is also a product called oil pastels.  I tried some of these, probably cheap ones.  They laid down like crayons, and it was difficult to get good detail.  I didn’t care for them.  What I use are “soft pastels”, which I’ll refer to as simply “pastels”.  Many pastel artists act affronted if you call them “chalk pastels” because there is no chalk involved, but it is a description that laypeople can easily understand.  Pastels are essentially pure pigment in a binder to help them keep their shape (a shape not unlike sticks of chalk, in many cases).  Pastels come in three forms, all with different advantages.  The forms can be used singly, or any two, or all three, according to the artist’s preferences and skills.  All three forms of pastels blend nicely into each other.

Pastel sticks come in varying degrees of hardness and approximately resemble sticks of chalk.  Although sticks can be sharpened to a chisel point for detail (and many artists do), they can also be used as a way to lay down large areas of color, like for a background.  Many artists use sticks to lay down an “underpainting” over which they use other sticks or pencils for details.  I find that using sticks in this way tends to fill up the tooth of the paper, and then it doesn’t accept the pencils as well.  This is the result of too heavy an application, too heavy a hand when applying color with sticks.  Because of this, I don’t really use sticks much anymore.

Pastel pencils are my favorite tool, because they offer the control of a pencil to get fine details I like to put into my work.  They look much like a regular pencil with a colored lead.  Most of the time, the entire subject of my drawing is done with nothing but pencils, with pan pastels or pastel sticks used for the background.  I did a 12 x 16″ piece entirely in pencils, no sticks or pan pastels.  That seemed like a long project.

Pan pastels are a fairly recent product.  They are used in much the same way as the pastel sticks, but come as a powder in a round flat container, not unlike a woman’s compact.  They are applied similarly to woman’s makeup, too, using foam applicators.  It is cheaper to purchase applicators designed for makeup than to buy the applicators manufactured specifically for pan pastels, so some artists cut costs that way.  Sometimes I’ll use a mini powder puff to apply the pastel to larger areas.  Pan pastels seem less heavy than sticks, and they take a pencil better than the sticks seem to, at least with the way I use them.

Because pastels are mostly pigment, many pastel artists refer to their work as “painting”.  However, it is a dry media, so to me, the word “painting” doesn’t sound right.  I prefer to call my own pastel work “drawings” most of the time, perhaps because my main tool is the pastel pencil.  When you use pencils, you’re drawing, right?  In the end, nobody cares whether it’s painted or drawn.  They care how it turns out.  🙂

Spotlight — “Dottie”

Dottie was my dog.  She didn’t start out as my dog.  In fact, at two years of age, she was adopted from a shelter by my future boyfriend.  By the time I moved in with her, she was already four, and she still hadn’t gotten past whatever abuse she had suffered before the shelter.  I introduced stability and security into her life, and she eventually got over her fears.  When I moved out, she came with me, because she responded better to me.  She lived to be about 12 1/2 years old and was a healthy happy dog.

Dottie was one of my earlier pastel drawings.  Because she was blue merle and had that funky eye, I felt that she would be a huge challenge for me to draw, and if I could draw her, then I could start to offer pet portraits on commission.  So in a way, her drawing was very important to my art career.  I had already drawn her in pencil and in pen, but as my skills increased, I felt comfortable enough to try her in color.  It was an interesting exercise in color, because none of my pencils was quite right, so I had to do a certain amount of color mixing for the first time.

Once I was satisfied with Dottie’s portrait, I felt confident in my ability to draw whatever dog someone might want me to draw.  By this time I had drawn a number of pets belonging to friends and family members, honing my skills.  My earliest pieces were definitely a learning experience, and necessary for me to build my skill and portfolio.  Now I can draw whatever pet people need me to draw.  I even drew a llama once!

The drawing of Dottie is not for sale.  No prints exist.

Chronicling the Journey

I have been drawing since early childhood, doodling on any spare papers and during class at school.  I attended every art class I could in school, and I tried to learn everything I could jam into my brain.  During that time, of course I explored many different media, but eventually my favorite became graphite pencils.

Once I got into college (not to study art, sadly), the drawing pretty well stopped.  I’m not sure why, but I hardly drew anything for 20+ years once the pattern was broken.  Then someone told my niece I was an artist, and she started asking me to give her drawings every birthday and Christmas.  The first drawing I did for her was a horse in pencil, freehand.  I began to experiment with different media, however, to find what I liked.  After a number of birthdays and Christmases, she was amassing quite a collection, and I started drawing for myself.

As much as I enjoyed graphite, I found I was quite interested in color.  At first, I tried paint, but I found that anything I used to know about how to make paint do what I want was long forgotten.  I explored other color media at my disposal.  An employee in an art store recommended pastel pencils for me, so I bought a small set of maybe a dozen.  I hated them, and eventually I gave them away to a young budding artist.  I never heard how she liked them.  I really wanted to like colored pencils, because I like the control I have with a pencil, but colored pencils just don’t do what I want them to do.  Others can make them do what I want them to do, but I can’t.

Finally, I saw some art, including a time-lapse video, of an artist who was creating work like I wanted to create, and I asked her what she used.  She was generous with her answers, and I found myself investing in a set of Stabilo Carbothello pastel pencils like hers.  The world opened up for me.  Suddenly, I had a color medium which blended nicely and gave me the control that I enjoy over a pencil.  I could do fine lines and details and make any color I wanted!  It didn’t occur to me for a long time that this was the very medium I had already rejected twice.

I began joining pastel groups on Facebook, which not only gave me access to other artists and their experience and expertise, but also gave me a samples of what I could someday hope to achieve with the tools at my disposal.  Eventually I replaced the Stabilos with a more complete set of the same set, and I passed along the slightly less complete set to another budding artist quite recently.  He hasn’t tried them yet, but I think he’s one of the guys who has way more control than I do over colored pencils, so that may end up his medium of choice.  Anyway, I gain a lot of information and insight into art through Facebook groups.

Now I do commissioned work of pets and people, and in between that and my full time job, I still do art for myself.  Almost all my work these days is in pastels, but I do a little bit in more monochromatic media.  I thought this blog might be a good way for me to chronicle my art journey, as well as pass on what I feel are relevant tidbits pertaining to art.  I hope you enjoy my blog.