Create Retreat - Day 3 - Color Pencil Journaling

On the third day of classes at Create, I took a class taught by Helen Shafer Garcia, "Color Pencil Journaling".  Helen is a very talented artist and a fantastic instructor.

Helen taught us how to capture the likeness of an object by following its lines and shapes, without lifting our pencils or erasing.  (Shhh...I cheated.)  We then used a water-based Tombow marker to outline it, purposely smearing the ink with water to add depth and shadows.  The next step was to add color with watercolors.  Finally, we went over it with colored pencils to add definition and more shading.   We also did a second piece, where we cut words out of a dictionary page and then drew an image inspired by those words.  Another good method to break the "getting started" block.  Here's Helen with the art from the whole class.

For my first piece, I worked from a children's toucan sticker and a tiger lily pilfered from the hotel's plantings in the parking lot to create my composition.  I love the images on the stickers; they were reduced to their essence.  I'll use that trick again when I need a shape.