Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #25 - Warm Neutral Light, Cool Colored Shadow

Oy.  Just getting this one in under the wire.  Sometimes, life is just a vortex that sucks you away from the studio.

Maybe it's just because I'm overtired, but I had a little psychedelic fun with this one.

Warm Neutral Light/Cool Colored Shadow Bear

Colored Pencil on paper

Well, we're a quarter of the way through this project, I hope you've enjoyed the ride thus far.  I know I'm having fun, and whaddaya know, I'm learning a thing or two along the way.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #24 - Cool Colored Light, Warm Neutral Shadow

Same song, second verse.  The cool light seems to work better with the bear.

Cool Colored Light/Warm Neutral Shadow Bear

I really want to jump in with oodles of color at this point, but these are part of the learning curve.  When Kevin Macpherson does studies like these, he uses Portland Grey Deep for his neutral shadow color, and Portland Gray Light for his neutral light color.  I'm staying true to that theme when doing these, and going a step further by breaking it down into warm and cool. 

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #23 - Warm Colored Light, Cool Neutral Shadows

Like a good recipe, we're going to start adding ingredients bit by bit.  Today, let's add a little color into the mix.

Warm Color/Cool Neutral Shadow Bear

This is one exercise that Kevin Macpherson suggests to show that great gobs of color everywhere don't work well, and that neutrals can complement and intensify color notes.  Of course, the trick to any good recipe is adding the right ingredients in the right proportions.  These ingredients don't complement this bear recipe at all, making it something that's visually untasty.  This wouldn't be the first time I've created something fairly inedible (although my dogs rejoice when I do just that in the kitchen.  Who else enjoys a failed culinary experiment more than a dog?). Time to empty the pot and try some different ingredients. 

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #22 - Cool Light/Warm Shadow

Let's reverse the warm/cool relationship from yesterday.

Cool/Warm Bear

Colored Pencil on paper

Once again, the relationship is subtle, but if I fill too much of the paper's tooth with the pencil to make it more obvious, the values become too dark. 

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #21 - Warm Light, Cool Shadow

Let's add one more element to our value bear: warm and cool differences.  For this study, I cleaned the dust off the colored pencil collection and cleared the cobwebs from the colored pencil section of my brain. It's been awhile since I've used these.   One nice thing about using the pencils is that the warm/cool differences and the values are all ready to go, no mixing required.  That's one check in the advantage column for using dry media.

Warm/Cool Bear

Colored Pencil on paper

Most of the bear is in shadow, the differences are subtle and don't photograph well, but trust me, they're there. 

Now, since I have a thing for dragons AND animated movies, we're off to see "How To Train Your Dragon" before it leaves the theaters.  I already have a smile on my face.