I will be covering this thread for Venus ..she has had some things come up So please bare with me as I will not be doing things exactly as she would ...I found this really cool picture from one of venus's friends site and I thought this would be very cool to draw ..or at least attempt to draw as it is a bit challenging .

I will be drawing this along with you because this was a last minute thing so I have no WIP to post as of yet ..

Always outline lightly before you begin to add the color and lay your colors lightly and build from there ...leaving any reflection areas white .

I hope you enjoy yourself and no worries Venus will be back

These are some of the colors I will be using .

Awesome pic -- I will join in!

TY Ernest I knew I could count on you .. this does look like a fun picture to draw

Thanks Kim!! I love this picture and if everything I want done at home gets done by the end of next week I will definately be participating in this WIP as well. My neice is who took this picture and is a wonderful photographer. I will try to help out as much as possible, as well.

Excellent image, the lighting and reflections are wonderful. I have to try to squeeze this one in somewhere.

Love it Kim. I will be working on this one.
dors

Great picture. I'm in the middle of a CP piece at the moment but will definately do this afterwards. It will go well with my other marble picture. Looking forward to seeing everyones interpretations.

I am glad this picture went over so well .. I LOVED it myself

Cool photo

~Daniel

This is what I have so far .. now I scanned it and when I rotated the image it somewhat change the shape of the ball .. not sure why .. so if you know why that could happen let me know .. I turned the paper on the scanner but when i am done all balls will not fit that way and I will have to rotate the image .

This is very challengening lol but lots of fun ..and dont worry when you think it looks like its not going to look right .. keep going because it takes its shape and the glass looks comes out as you contiue to layer colors .

Special thanks to Jeanette for the colored pencil class she did on layering colors because I am using what I learned from that class to get this as glassy as I could .

Damn, that looks sweet!

TY Ernest ...I just finished my orange one ..this picture like I said is hard ... but fun to do because it does come to life after the layers of color are put on ...I go from light to dark .

The scanner darkens it a bit .

Oh yeah in rotating the image I noticed that the reflection in the glas balls is a sunset and the foggy part on top that I could not figure out why it was there .. is the water .. look at it upside down ..lol its awsome .

ball number three .. I made a bit of a mistake on the shape going to try and fix that .. you see so much when you scan a picture lol

And here is my finished picture

cant wait to see everyones

WOW! That is amazing Kim, I love the reflections on the table top and in the marbles themselves of course. You've set the standard high!
Fantastic.

Hi Kim That's beautiful and lovely. I am not sure I can do this color pencils project as hard for me.

lily

Here's mine.
[attachmentid=7665]

WOW Kim and Ernest... talk about good.... no they are GREAT.

They look fabulous.

Kim do you know where I can find jeanettes color pencil layering class...is it archived... I am just learning to do color pencil layering and not sure if I am doin g it right or not. If your not sure Kim. I will ask Jeanette..


dors

WOW Ernest, great job, you have really taken to those CPs.

Ernest & Kim geart job ,they look cool


i'll try find the time to try them too. They may a bite of time, they look hard

Excellent work Kim. My only critique would be to warm up the black in the background with some of the colours in the balls themselves. The same would apply to the shading on the balls. Sneaking Kim's black pencil out of her case..... Yeah, I know...I'm colour prejudiced when it comes to CP heheh

Ernest, wonderful work, but you can make it really pop if you intensify your colours and shadows. Do a greyscale of both pictures and you'll see just how dark you could go on your drawing.

Dors, here's the link to the Coloured Pencil class I did.

Isn't it great when an image just calls you to draw it?

excellent work everyone-i dont know if i will do this one or not. this seems way over my head-one question kim-are you using solvent to blend colors and if so what kind-the one i tried is mineral spirits and it did not go well at all. you and jeanette no i draw with graphite and i blend and blend alot and take out and blend some more- i dont know how to fade with color pencils, can some one help me with this? thanks
Lori

I don't think Kim uses any solvent -- she can answer for herself the next time she passes by. But the way to blend colors is just to layer them: use sharp pencils, and draw layers of light lines, one color atop the next. I get into trouble whenever I start laying down color too heavily -- my CP work always looks the best when I use lots of light layers (I didn't do a very good job of this here.)

Ernest is right Lori, CP takes many many layers of pigment to make it look good. In this instance really sharp pencils define the edges of the shadows and the reflections, while you can get away with blunter pencils for the background and larger areas of colour.

Blending has its place but isn't necessary in coloured pencil usually, but each person is different in how they want their piece to appear. I believe that people use a colourless blender far too soon in coloured pencil, which eliminates the tooth of the paper and makes it impossible to add more colour. Solvent use takes a lot of practice and you'd need a sturdy watercolour paper to be able to accept it without buckling. Not many use solvent, but it really does take A LOT of practice. For backgrounds you can also use acrylic paint or watercolour. All methods of mixed media are worth exploring til you find what is right for you.

So my advice would be to take your time, use a light touch and practice a ball or two first on a scrap of paper before you go for the real thing. You may need to use 10 or more layers of CP to get your drawing to the point where you like it. You can do it. Do a detailed drawing first of the shapes, then start your colour process.

Ernest ... awsome job ... I know this was hard to do ..fun but hard .. and I am impressed

Jeanette believe it or not I told my husband I want to stay away from using black so what happens the scanner makes it look darker then it really is .. because no black was used lol the dark I used was french grey 90% ...I will try and rescan the picture but funny you say sneek my black pencil out of my box because its easy to spot it is about 2 inch. long lol .

No I dont use any solvent .. funny thing is I have no clue about any of the tricks to use .. mine is pencil on paper ...im not even color wheel wise .. I am so not skilled training here .. its hit and miss for me .

I do as Jeanette and Ernest do .. layers of colors ....try to do only one ball .. not all four ....and like jeanette said look at the lines in the picture ...follow them .

Did anyone turn it upside down to see the sunset in the balls ?

Jeanette's advice is always worth following! Here's my deeper, darker marbles:
[attachmentid=7668]

ok i think i might give it a try. i have to have patience-dont like doing layer after layer but maybe if i work on other things along with it i wont get bored. thanks everyone.
Lori

oh also i did do the color pencil class but my memory is so bad and i didnt print them out-tried using the link but just brung me back here. thanks
Lori

Ernest and Kim, WOW!! Both of you have done a fantastic job. Wish I could participate sooner.

oooh nice Ernest, that's really made it stand out, fabulous work

I agree Ernest, you and Kim really aced this one!

well here is my effort! i posted even against my better judgment. dont like it at all.
Lori

i think i am going to try again-use the colors you used kim, maybe i didnt use enough colors or the right colors or something.
Lori

Lori I think you have a great start now you need to keep layering on the marble.

As Paulette says, this is a fine start -- because you've used layers of light strokes, it looks like there's still a lot of tooth left on the paper surface, so you can continue to add to this and refine it. Don't give up!

I've heard a couple of times both on Drawspace and in colored pencil books that every colored pencil drawing goes through a stage where you don't like the way it looks. It comes with the territory.

I did not like mine in the begining .. it took alot of layers to get it where it was .

Lori ...look at the lines on the glass ball ...and look at the highlights .. try not to look at the ball as a whole this can get you confused as to where to start drawing ....trust us .. once you add more layers and keep your concentration on the dark and light spots you will be pleased .. dont give up hun you have a great start .

Thank you Jeanette for the link

Kim and Ernest ... your balls look fantastic...wow

I did try and oh it was so sad....I filed it LOL (bin). I will have another try. I am using FC Polychromos ...I feel that you both could be using Prisma color.? I can't seem to get that transparent look... mine look FLAT. I did so many layers and also used solvent once after about 6 layers.
Ah I will keep practicing.

dors

Here is how my drawing of the balls came out.

[attachmentid=7692]



Love everyones drawings they are all so great

well this time i did do layers and layers and more layers-i think this time i went to many even i do like this one better than the first. wow i bet this has at least 20 layers. i am going to do the rest too. i see now what everyone means it does work with layers.
thanks everyone for the encouragment
Lori

Yay! Looking good! As Jeanette pointed out to me, the values in the reflections are quite vivid, almost as dark as the marbles themselves. Don't be afraid to go after those. And watch out for the bright white highlights on the top left edges!

Meow, you did a really good job getting the details in; I was really not able to put any leaves on my tree reflections but yours look great!

Ok, here is my first marble. The background is not really green, it just scanned that way. This is much harder than it looks to draw.

Judyvan

Wow these are turning out great

Meow2000 I think you have done a beautiful job ... I can see clearly the sunset in each ball .. well done .

Lori ...very good ..20 layers ...your patient lol I couldnt do 20 lol thats awsome I am glad you see now what the layers can do .. with practice you will only improve and before you know it doing a colored pencil picture will require more then just the colors your eyes see at first glance ...it will drive you nuts.

Judy ... nice glass ball and yes it was harder then I expected .. I want to say sorry for posting such a hard picture but you guys are doing great with it and I think sometimes it helps pull out that extra talent or gift and I know after your done .."its like wow I drew that pretty cool"

Dorr....You are the water color master if need be do it in watercolor ..whatever medium you are comfortable with

Here is my finished piece. Thanks, Kim, for the challenge.

Judyvan

Judy, Lori, Miranda,
Well done!!!

Hi. I just had to jump in and post the link for the CP class. It is wonderful. The link given elsewhere in this thread doesn't take you to the specific topic.

Since I'm new here, I'm not allowed to post links so this one will need to have the spaces removed after : and www.

http: //www .drawspace.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3029

Cinde

Judyvan well done looks so great
thank you all for your nice comments

Judy ..beautiful job ! you can really see the glass reflections .

thanks everyone-yes i did miss the highlights, concentrating on the colors to much i think, i never miss highlights when working in graphite. i am going to do another and another, hopefully someday i will get it right. love yours judyvan awesome work!!
Lori

Yes, yes, yes! OK, so it's not just me. Why does it feel like so little of my graphite drawing ability transfers to CPs? It's been like starting all over again. Grrr.

Sapai

Thank you very much Cinde.. I have printed them now.

dors

Thank you everyone for you very kind comments. Ernest, I thought yours was quite good, so don't you dare give up on CP.

Judyvan

This is my very poor first try.... I will do this again and I will master it.


smiling dors

Doesn't look so poor to me, in fact it looks pretty good.