"Flower Child"

"Flower Child"  Polychromos and Prismacolor colored pencils on
Fabriano watercolor paper from my photo.

When I was in high school, I really thought I could draw.  Our art
classes were made up of 30 students or so, and I was one of the more
talented ones in the bunch.  A lot of students took Art because they
thought it would be an easy A.  When I went to college, however, I
had to take Life Drawing 101 with Mr. Buscaglia, who was known to
be a tough teacher.  He expected perfection and excellence, but in a quiet
humble way.  He never raised his voice, but would simply walk around the
room, and point to an area on your drawing, and nod.  That meant that area
needed more work.  Many times I thought I was finished, and he would
indicate I was just getting started.  He pushed all of us, and helped make
me the artist I am today.

According to him though, "a drawing was never finished, only postponed".
He always said you could come back to it, even years later and re-work
something.  I still hear his voice in my head as I draw...the basics
about line, lost edges, shading, etc, still rattle around as I draw.  So, I have
worked on this enough to make him proud.  I have spent hours
shading, re-doing, adding values, erasing, etc...and now, I
think I am finished!  At least until tomorrow....


For info on children's portraits in colored pencil or graphite:
sheltongail@hotmail.com

Bluebird for Sale

I finished this little drawing today.  It was much harder than I thought it
would be!  All of that background proved to be very tedious.  I had
to draw it around all the branches.  Maybe I should have done the background
first?! But I always do the subject matter first; I feel it is more important, and if
I don't get it right, there will be no reason to spend any time on the background!

This little bluebird lives in my backyard.  I keep several bluebird
boxes on trees surrounding the yard.  I enjoy seeing them go in and out,
taking care of their little ones.  I haven't seen my cats bother any of
them as of yet....but you never know!

I have finished hanging the colored pencil exhibit at the gallery.  I still have
some tweaking to do, but it is all up and ready to view.  I will have the
pricing and details done sometime this week.  I will have this little piece
for sale too.  There are also prints of many of my pieces available
as well.  I look forward to seeing some of you come by!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

Bluebird on a Branch  Original Colored Pencil
9 x 12  $75.00  

Poppies and Owls

Who likes painting owls in art class!?  They dooooo.  We finished up our art
classes for the year today.  They completed these owl designs, and then
we enjoyed some ice cream outside on the patio!

On my way home from Texas this past weekend, I went by this wonderful
place.  It is the Wildseed Farm, outside of Fredericksburg, Texas.  I knew the
poppies would be in bloom, and I wanted to get some pictures.

And so I started this poppy drawing tonight from one of the photos.
I have always loved poppies...they are such classic flowers, and have
such beautiful form.  I will post some of the progress on this as I go along.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

Preparing for Colored Pencil

I am getting ready to do a lot with my colored pencils!

Tomorrow I will teach a colored pencil class to some children

at the studio in the Pea Patch.  There are still a couple of spots

if anyone is still interested:

 3-5 pm Colored Pencil Explorations

Ages 10 and up  $20  Supplies Included

Tonight I tried to get some of my pencils organized, in the cups

by color.  And we will also use some pastels with their pencils.

And then next week, I will be attending the Colored Pencil Society

annual convention in Covington, Kentucky.  I will be the student

this time, taking a workshop with John Ursillo, whose work is

above.  We are going to be doing some drawing on canvas, which is

really different for colored pencils (usually done on paper). 

So, I will teach tomorrow, and then next week, I will be taught!

fun, fun...

sheltongail@hotmail.com