What are you reading winner.

We have a winner! Karin Marie's name was drawn for this contest. A signed copy of First Snow is on the way to her.

Karin Marie said...
I enjoy reading The Night Before Christmas, but I often find that I will pick up the newest Debbie Macomber Christmas book. It seems like she has a new Christmas themed one every year!

What a fitting choice. I recently had a neighbor send these amazing photos of our cabin with the first snow of the year. I thought I'd share this winter sight with you all. For a desert dweller it's such a treat. Enjoy!

Our cabin.

 Our dog's house.

(She really doesn't stay there. She's an indoor dog.)

 Our favorite place to sit. Usually!

 

Our View!

What are you reading for Christmas?

Mention a favorite book you like to read over and over each Christmas, and you can win a signed print, your choice, of my holiday art. Just leave a comment with the title and I'll add your name to the list. Get your comment in by midnight on December 31, 2012. In the spirit of procrastination I'll announce the winner on January 2, 2013. Merry Christmas!

My favorites are, The Polar Express and The Homecoming.


Choose from either...

 Jack Frost

or...

First Snow

First Snow, Step-by-step Part II

And here's the reveal...

I'm going to jump right in and show the color final first. It looks so much more...well, finished than the first steps do. They tend to look a little odd until I get enough layers of color down. This piece is mixed media. I use a combination of color pencil (Prisma Pencil and Derwent) and pastel dust (NuPastel ground into a dust and rubbed into the paper).


Here I’m layering in the color pencil (CP). This is where I feel like the characters start to come to life. This is the "odd looking" stage, but it’s a good way to show how I work. The three kids on the left have the skin tone and mouth and eyes pretty far along. The boy holding the paper snowflake has the base colors, plus some shading started on his skin tone. The two girls on the far right have just the first wash of color. I will end up using around 10-12 layers on the skin.



Moving on to the hair. I want to start getting some surrounding values in now so I can make adjustments to the skin tones. Again, adding very light layers of color. I'm alternating between warm and cool colors for the skin. And getting some dark values in for the hair.


Now I have the faces and hair done. I will keep checking them as I get more surrounding colors down and tweak as needed.


Now I've gotten the shirt colors in. This is still all color pencil. And I'm still going very slowly.


On to the brickwork. This is where I’m using the pastel dust method... and moving a lot faster! The brickwork is pastel dust rubbed into the paper in layers (NuPastel ground into a fine dust and applied with tissue and make-up applicators). Then I lift the mortar areas out with kneaded eraser and will be detailing with CP. (Started the mortar and added some CP on the far right.)


Finished the detail work with color pencil on the bricks. At this point I’m thinking the classroom scene is a little too light. Plus, it seems to need something to tie things all together, so I decide to make some changes to the classroom, darkening, bringing in some warmer brick colors for cohesion, and going a little more realistic, less outlined.


And the final piece! Made the adjustments to the classroom. That helped tie in the brickwork. Finished the window frame and snowflakes.

gail

First Snow, Step-by-step Part I

Here’s a detailed step by step, work in progress for a piece I’m just finishing. I‘ll be showing this in two stages, first the development of the “under painting”, then the application of color.

Initial value study. I start with a tight sketch in graphite. I did a lot of research, checked reference material, and did preliminary sketches and composition before getting to this point.

Revised value study. I make adjustments or changes and work up the values for most areas. At this point I know some values will be darker, but leave them as is for now. I will want to do some areas in color only.

Final print-out. I have decided that the snowflakes will need a blue under painting instead of gray to have a more crystal appearance later. I was worried I would be fighting the gray, so I went into Photoshop and made changes. Then I printed out the final under painting, on my final art paper. (In this case Stonehenge.) This is what I will be adding color to .

Double page spread. And here’s a sketch of the layout of both pages. The text will be centered on the left hand side. For this WIP, I’ll just be showing you the progress of the right hand side.

I'll post the color steps and final artwork in the next day or two.

gail