Manzanillo Beach - Landscape Complete!

Here is my completed Colour Pencil Landscape of Manzanillo Beach on A5 Sketchbook Paper.  

I am pretty pleased with how this has turned out, although of course there are areas I would like to improve.  My rock drawing skills are not the best, so I think they let it down - especially at the bottom edge of the land mass we see in the distance.  I struggled with that!  However, I love the water and how I managed to get a reflection of the light down the middle, and I rather like the leaves (especially the main one with yellow veins) in the bottom left of the picture.  I also had fun discovering a way to show trees growing on the hills in the distance - by drawing tiny circles with a blue pencil on green shaded hills.  It worked really well I think! 

So my Landscape skills are steadily improving, and no doubt the more I practice them, the more they will improve.  I just find them so challenging! 

Thanks for looking, and please feel to leave and tips and suggestions for improvement in the comments below!

Trees Landscape - Complete!

I finally completed my landscape! It's been difficult working on this one, but I am so glad I finally completed it. It was worth finishing as now I am proud of it! There are still areas I need to improve on, I am a fledgling landscape artist, I do need to improve the contrast and make the picture darker in some areas. But this is a good start I think with a difficult reference image (see previous post). Thanks so much to Retha for offering me so much help and support - without you and would not have completed it!

It just goes to show that it is worth finishing your pictures, no matter how badly you think they are going - they do improve once completed, and you have something to be proud of!

My Landscapes Need Help!

This is a work in progress (WIP) of the landscape I have been trying to complete. It's Colour Pencil on A5 sketchbook paper. I don't think I am a natural landscape artist - I am struggling! I never seem to manage to complete a proper landscape. I think the main problem is I don't know how to do the texture and detail in landscapes, I am completely at a loss. For some reason Still Life drawings and close up details of images I can see the details. But doing a Landscape, with grass trees, etc. I can't seem to manage at all. I would be very grateful for anyone to give me some help and advice!

Here's the reference pic I have been working from:

Artist's Block

I know you can get writer's block, but is it possible to get artist's block? What do you do when you don't know what to draw, and every reference photo you look at, you think you can't do? Maybe it's partly a confidence issue, and maybe it's a little of allowing the world to rest in heavy on your shoulders and stifle your creativity. Either way, I think I might have found a cure.

If I take a break, do something else, allow myself to get distracted, and best of all start laughing at something - I laugh the stress away! Then I spent some time looking in my art inspiration folder, where I've collected both pencil and colour pencil art that inspires me. Art I would love to be able to do.

I have a basic art plan to work on each week: Figure Drawing Monday, Still Life Tuesday, Wildlife Wednesday, Landscape Thursday, Urban Landscape Friday, Sci-fi Fantasy Saturday, and Colour Pencil Sunday. This gives me goals to work on to improve my art skills. I am also thinking of trying themes for each week, such as movie week, so I pick a reference related to movies for each one that week, a patriotic week, so each one has to be related to something patriotic to my country, maybe a Victorian week, so everything is Victorian related, etc, etc.

To ease myself back into regular sketching, I am also planning to try just a section of a reference photo if I am too overwhelmed by the thought of tackling a whole finished image. I will still be able to practice my drawing and rendering skills, hopefully gain confidence, and then maybe work on a full finished drawing at the end of the week.

That's the plan anyway. The main goal is just to get me sketching again. I want to be good, and I want to improve my skills. I can be a great artist if I practice. I can do this, I just need to try.

Rolf Harris Impressionism Class

Right now I am so inspired by Jamie Oliver's Dream School. He's bringing together the world's best in each subject he wants to have teach at his school. I recently enjoyed Alvin Hall teaching Maths Class, as Maths is one of my weaknesses, and he teaches it in a really interesting way, and makes it relevant to our everyday lives!

But I wanted to post this Introduction to Impressionism by Rolf Harris, where he inspires and amazes the kids in this school. I really enjoyed watching it, and it really made me want to have a go at it. Even though I don't use paints, I believe I could use similar rag blending techniques using graphite pencil to create similar impressionist paintings. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do as well.

Rolf Harris Impressionism Class