Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #30 - Conte Pencil On Warm Color

I can't ride a wave of success for very long, I have this innate need to tip the boat and see what happens.  Sometimes I just wind up getting wet, and sometimes I learn a thing or two from the swim.  Yesterday's bear worked well, so today I rowed the boat in the opposite direction and drew him on a warm color.

Warm Conte Bear

A totally different feel, but not half bad, and I still liked the fact that I wasn't at war with the white paper. 

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #29 - Conte Pencil on Cool Background

I was feelin' a little sassy today, so I worked up my courage to try pastels again, but this time a slightly different species.  I have a small set of Conte Pastel Pencils that have traveled the years and miles with me, probably from an early college drawing class.  (I won't tell you how long ago that was, but here's a hint:  VCRs were just becoming popular.  You could get one with a corded remote at your local department store for about $500.)

For a bit of variation, I searched through the different types of paper I have tucked away, came up with a sheet of Canson Mi-Teintes in a lovely shade of slate blue, and started in.

Cool Conte Bear

Conte pencil on paper

Artists will tell you that sometimes a piece will just seem to fall onto the paper effortlessly, and this was one of those glorious times.  The Conte pencils had aged gracefully, were fabulous to work with, and didn't bury me in mountains of choking dust.  But it was the paper that made the difference this time.  The texture held the pastel nicely, and the best part was that I didn't feel like I was fighting the white of the previous papers.  The blue was such a great compliment to the bear I didn't have to gob up the entire background just to cover it up.

Ahhh.  Time to crack open a celebratory Diet Coke, laze on the back porch with the dogs, and watch the rain go by.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #28 - Crayons

Have you just been hit with a wave of nostalgia?

Remember the smell of the wax?

Remember the feel of a crayon in your hand?

Remember the sound of peeling back the paper label to expose more crayon?

Was there anything better as a kid than cracking open a new box of 64?

Unlike the archaeological pastel find, I went out and purchased these.  On purpose.  How can you do one hundred of artistic anything and not have crayons be part of the list?

Crayon Bear

Crayola Crayons on paper

I managed to get several color layers on before the wax started to build up flake off.  No worries. This one was just for pure, ridiculous fun.  

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #27 - Pastels

I went on an archaeological dig of my art supplies the other day, and unearthed a small box of unused pastels.  I really, really have no idea how long they've been in my possession.  I don't remember buying them.  I don't remember getting them as a gift.  Since pastels don't seem to have an expiration date (at least I couldn't find one on the dusty box anywhere), it will be one of those little mysteries that will stew in the back of my brain forever.  Maybe the "Ye Olde Rembrandte Softe Pastels" label on the box could give me a clue to their date of origin.  Or maybe I'll just have them carbon dated. 

Anyway, what better time to try Ye Olde Pastels?  I tried to let the pastels 'do their thing' (whatever that means), but with only 12 colors and no experience at my disposal, I felt my options were a bit limited.

Pastel Bear

Soft pastels on paper

There were several interesting things I learned about pastels from this study:

• I like the 'immediacy' of pastels.  Pick it up, put color on paper.  Nothing intermediate, like brushes and mixing paint on a palette.  It's like having color practically flow from your fingertips, without having to go through all the bother of mutant genetic experimentation.

• Now I understand why every time you see the palette of a pastel artist, they seem to have at least one pastel in each and every color, value and intensity that has ever been created.   It's much easier, more effective, and just darn better looking to have the exact pastel you need, and put it's mark down on paper.  Pastels, at least in my beginners hands, don't seem to mix well, and go to mud fairly quickly.

• Dust. (*cough*) And more dust.  I had heard rumors about the dust clouds that orbit pastel artists, sort of like the cloud that surrounded 'Pigpen" in the Peanuts comic strip. The amount of pastel dust quickly reached sandstorm proportions.  Within a few minutes, there was more pastel dust on me and the surrounding area than there was on the paper.  I made the innocent mistake of working flat, which just caused the dust to pile up in little sand dunes on the paper.  The only way to remedy the situation was to pick up the paper in a flat position, move it over a paper towel,  dump the sand dunes, then try to daintily remove the remnants that stubbornly clung to the paper.

•  I have always liked pastel art.  In the right hands, there's a looseness and freshness that I find visually satisfying. I simply admired good pastel artists before (Brad Faegre is one favorite of mine), now I'm completely awed and agog of artists who handle the medium well.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #26 - Cool Neutral Light, Warm Colored Shadow

Here's the last of the 'Warm/Cool/Color' study series.  Out of all of them, even though the colors are a bit funky, I think this one seems to work best.

Cool Neutral Light/Warm Colored Shadow Bear

Colored Pencil on paper