I finally finished my latest drawing. I wanted to do more angels and to do this one in pastel was a treat. I really enjoyed creating this piece. The blending of colors is just amazing, and I love the soft, finished look.
I hope you like this one. There will be more coming. Enjoy.
Angel In The Garden
Back to the drawing table again. I’m still trying to figure this whole process out, as it is different from the colored pencil technique, which I am used to. I am currently waiting for some pastel pencils to come in, and when they do, I’m sure my drawings will get much better. Right now, the pastels are very hard for me to work into small spaces and detail work. With the pastel pencils. you do have more control over that dilemma. The freedom of this medium is wonderful though.
So, for now…here is Mr. Easter Bunny. 🙂
Mr. Easter Bunny
Yes, I have been at it again. Trying different papers and pastels and colored pencils, just to see what will happen really. I tried 2 more snowmen pictures, and this is what happened. They are cute, but I’m finding I am having trouble keeping the lines clean, though I guess with pastels, they are meant to be somewhat more free to draw with. The roughness of the pictures adds to their interest. that’s really what I like about the medium. You kind of just go with it. Hope you like these two!
Snowman Number 1
Snowman Number 2
Here is a picture I did for another school concert that was about Christmas in New York. It was done all in black watercolor wash, to give it the lighter greys and soft accents. I like the way it turned out, because I am so used to doing cutesy characters, that I never even consider drawing structural things, so this was quite a challenge for me. The tree at Rockefeller Center came out pretty decent too, I think. All in all, it came out pretty well and this is the first time I have ever showed it since I rendered it many years ago. Enjoy!
Christmas In New York Watercolor
Someone stop me…this is too much fun! I wish I knew a Santa like this one! I spent a little more time on this one.
Santa...again.
Okay, I’m finally done with Santa. It took me much longer than I thought as I was doing the Christmas thing and putting up the tree and putting out the lights, etc… So sorry for this. I could draw 24/7 and not tire, but life happens and it has to be put aside. It’s a constant struggle for me.
But here he is and I am happy with it, but feel I am still not quite done. It looks like it needs some text or something at the top. I do usually draw in my own message, but I didn’t add any text here so it could be added later with Photoshop. This way I could add any message I want such as Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas or just a cute quote. Maybe I will even add a paper scroll with a message on it. It gives me a little more freedom.
I had trouble deciding what color the girls dress should be. Since she is so close to Santa’s bright red coat, it had to be an accent color. If I colored the dress let’s say..orange, it would throw it all off. I could have gone with a blue of some kind, but it just did not seem Christmasy enough for me. I could have also gone with a yellow, but then the background is mostly golden in color and again, it would have lost the “ooomph” I was going for. So, I went with the safest bet, red and white stripe, like a candy cane! That would work, and I think it does.
Well I hope you like the way it turned out. One down, and a bunch to go. The baby fairy is on my drawing board now and I’m planning already. This one shouldn’t take too long though, as it not a full-page picture. I will post it when I am done.
Well, back to the drawing board, and Christmas! Thanks! 🙂
Santa Hugging Girl completed
Well, here is the Girl hugging Santa picture I am still working on. I am taking it slower than usual because I have been away from doing this for about a year, and when you do this, it is harder to remember how to do things like the shading and mixing of color, etc. I do not want to mess this up, because if I do, I will have to start all over again, and I don’t want to do that!
As you see here, the colors are coming out pretty well, and I am very happy with it. Like I said, every time I come back to drawing after a long period of time, it seems I get just a little better at the technique. It’s like my technique is maturing as I mature. Strange!
The coloring process is taking longer than I thought because I am constantly layering and adding things as I go along. The more layering of colors you do on a picture, the more realistic it becomes, and it seems to pop off the page. I tell you though, I am soooo tired of holly leaves right now! The dilemma I am facing now is what color to make the girl’s dress that will accent Santa, not clash and still look Christmasy. Should it be plain, should it be patterned, bluish,pinkish???? I just don’t know right now, so what I do is keep coloring everything else until the color kind of comes to me. I can kind of see what the color should be if I look at it long enough.
I am also trying to figure out how I am going to do Santa’s fur and separate it nicely from his beard and hair. Otherwise it will just lay flat. What I do at this point now then, is lay a sheet of tracing paper over the design so I can see all the colors through it, and I color over the tracing paper and check colors that way instead of ruining the picture.
So that’s it, that’s what I have so far. I can only spend so many hours on these pictures each day because of everything else that has to be done,and it just gets to be stop and go. I will get there though. I may not complete 24 pictures before the end of the year with Christmas and all, but I will strive for at least 10! I have to!
Anyway, I will be back with more on this picture and the fairy in a few days. I am working on two others as well, and I will show you those when I am done. Thanks for staying tuned! Until next time… 🙂
I felt I should try something a little different for this post.
I am currently in the process of trying to come up with at least 24 new designs before the end of the year. I need to do this because I have not drawn anything new since last year, and I need to refresh my inventory, so to speak. I want to be able to send these designs to an art licensing company or greeting card company, and this requires many designs and only the best. So I’m going to really try hard at this.
Anyway, I just thought it would be fun to show you how my drawings come to life and to do the process in stages. This way you can see how the whole process comes together and how an idea comes to life. I have many that are on the drawing board right now, but I will show you two that I am currently working on.
Since I have not drawn in such a long time, it’s almost like starting from scratch. I have to review all my colored pencil books and blending techniques, put on some music that inspires me, and just start drawing. And it’s funny, every time I do go back to drawing after a long period of time like this, it seems I improve on my technique, and that’s a good thing.
The first part of the process is first thinking of what holiday I should be drawing for, or what thought do I want to convey. Then I start going through all my Norman Rockwell books, children’s illustrator books and magazine cuttings of people’s poses, etc., and write notes or jot ideas down. When a complete thought comes to mind, I draw this out on tracing paper. When that is done, I ink that and redraw that onto bristol board ( a thicker paper). Then it’s color time, and this is the fun stage.
I always color the faces or the skin first, because to me, it feels like the object I am drawing is no longer flat. It seems more alive. Many artists do this stage last, because it can throw off the colors, but I just go back and darken the figure for balance if it needs it. It gets me excited the more realistic the skin looks on paper, almost glowing.
After this is done the way I want, I can almost envision what the colors should be around the figure. Then it begins, layer on layer. Usually starting the lightest colors to the dark, and the picture slowly comes to life.
So here goes. I am already beyond the tracing paper stage on these two designs. I am now in the coloring stage of the skin and facial features. Doesn’t it seem like they just jump off the page! They both still seem a little light in color here, but as I go, they will darken just a bit.
Baby Fairy In Meadow
Girl Hugging Santa
I will try to post another blog post in a day or so (I hope) showing you the middle stage. Hope you’ve enjoyed this. Now…back to drawing and everything else….Thanks.
I am posting some of the first pictures I created for greeting cards back in the 70’s. I remember taking the designs down to the printers with my mother and going over everything with the printer. The artwork couldn’t contain many colors because of the expense, so to provide interest, I drew in black ink with a rapidograph pen and had it printed on cream-colored stock and colored in certain areas with a red marker. That was it. I was so excited when, in about a week, I would get the call from the printer that my cards were ready. Boy, have things changes since then or what??? It was so exciting back then, though.
So, here they are. The first designs I sent out into the world as greeting cards. You know, I think I am going to cry.
Girl On The Beach
Girl On The Hill
Girl In The Rain
I just set up my new website (cherylmcnulty.com) that will feature all of my artwork. I just had to chuckle because the line I used to start off my introduction is:
As long as I can remember, I had wanted to be an artist. In my younger days, I would bring home large sheets of manila (I always thought this was “vanilla”) paper from school and draw pictures in crayon for every holiday. Then, being so proud, I would tape these pictures up in my kitchen for all to see.
That just brought back so many memories for me. I distinctly remember when it was time for art class when I was in 4th and 5th grade. They would pass out this large sheet of paper and put it in front of you and you had your own (hopefully sharpened) Crayola Crayons. Like I said, I always thought it was “vanilla” because of the color, not manila. Anyway, the teacher would say something like, “Okay, I want you to draw something with snowmen”,or “Draw something that represents Springtime to you”.
This was like heaven to me. I couldn’t wait. I would stare at this large piece of paper and think, this could be anything. It all begins with that first stroke. I would be so excited and had so many ideas in my head, I didn’t know where to begin!! We had just one hour to complete it. Of course the boys and jocks all moaned like they were in a living hell, which I could never understand. Although, I was always the one that hated Gym class! Go figure.
Do you know I would be so immersed in my drawing, that the hour went by like it was ten minutes for me. I enjoyed it that much. This could also explain why gym class felt like half a day for me, when it was only an hour. Yuck!
Anyway, I would always get alot of compliments on my drawings. I would do the fancy shading thing with my crayons, not just plain orange, but shade it in a darker orange or red to give it that “oompf” factor. My mother taught me that trick when she would color in my coloring books when I was small. She would color in my Snow White coloring book and make Snow White look like she would jump off the page. She had blushing, pink cheeks and shine in her hair.She looked beautiful! And this was just crayon!
Well, now I’m really going to make myself blush by sharing with you some saved old crayon drawings from long ago. Yes, I saved some. What can I say…I was proud! Now don’t laugh! Here goes:
By The Sea (colored pencil,1979)
Spring (crayon, 1978)
Bedtime (crayon, about 1975)
Joy To The World (crayon, 1976)
My House At Christmas (crayon, about 1975)
A real photo of my house (I think I did pretty good)
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