COLORS OF SPRING TWO

Color mixing challenges me no matter what medium I try. While working on my self-imposed 30-day challenge of the Colors of Spring, I spent time looking at the colors in the flowers and tried to duplicate them. I realized that Nature is a master colorist. I was flummoxed when I discovered several plants that have red and green blended together. Mixing these two colors on the opposite end of the color wheel with paint or colored pencils usually gives me shades of brown. The real plants I looked at, such as the succulent Crassula, managed to be vibrant instead of dull.

I set up some obstacles for myself when I started. I planned to paint with watercolors for this daily practice. I chose cold press paper, which is my usual watercolor choice. When I discovered I didn't have the bright spring paint colors in my palette, I switched to colored pencils without starting with smoother paper. I also drew the outlines of the flowers in graphite pencil. This lack of planning and wrong choices reminds me of cooking preparation. If you watch cooking shows, the cooks always have each ingredient measured out, lined up in order of use. Preparation makes a difference, doesn't it? Luckily for me, this challenge is a practice, not a finished product, and a way to learn from my mistakes.

I finished my 30-day challenge by day 15. These challenges motivate me to do some artwork every day. Once I start though, I find it hard to stop each day with just one square. I find that I also wander off in other directions: looking up names of flowers, making a color wheel, and refreshing/learning information about using colored pencils. I'm not a master of these tools. I've used them all my life, but, like watercolor, I haven't concentrated on them enough to be an expert colored pencil artist. One of the rabbit holes that I went down this week presented me with colored pencil artists' websites. As always when I find a new artist I like, my mouth drops open at their abilities and creativity.

Take a look at some spectacular examples of colored pencil art:

Ann Kullberg:

https://annkullberg.com/pages/ann-kullbergs-art-gallery

Arlene Steinberg:

http://www.arlenesteinberg.com/ArlenesDrawingsNew.htm

Cindy Valek Mottl:

https://www.cindyvalekmottlart.com/works

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Brooklyn Art Library, the home of the largest collection of art sketchbooks, had a disastrous fire. They were in the process of moving the collection to a new home when the truck carrying the collection was in an accident. They are now attempting to save as many sketchbooks as possible. They have a GoFundMe page:

https://gofund.me/75a44938

You can see the digitized collection (including 2 of mine) and more news of the fire rescue at their website:

https://brooklynartlibrary.org

One of two sketchbooks that I sent to the Brooklyn Art Library in January.
It has not been digitized yet and may be lost.

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St. Cloud State University, my dad's alma mater, is hosting us for a reception at the university archives which now contains much of his work for 30 years drawing the Bugs Bunny comic strip. After the reception, the drawings will be available for viewing by appointment.