Stained glass with coloured pencils

I used an alcoholbased marker for the thick lines; the rest of the painting was done again with coloured pencils and odorless mineral spirit.

 

The Power of Colours

In my opinion there's a lot of energy in this painting. Somehow it looks like I am in favor of the combination of blue and orange-reddisch hues. Now, red is the colour of fire, of the sun, of heat, of lava running down the mountains. It can be agressive as well. Blue is the colour of the water, running down with endless energy. In middle age paintings a certain kind of blue was reserved to the cloak of Maria, the "regina coelis" or the Queen of the heavens, so for someone also very powerful. 

Well, I didn't sit down and plan this colour combination before I began to paint with my coloured pencils. It happened during the painting process. Maybe I felt a bit powerful because I was able to solve some private problems? Sounds very strange, I know...

 

In the Jungle

This is the third painting in a series of abstract paintings done with coloured pencils and odorless mineral spirit. Here I almost used all of my Greens. I am still learning to apply the pencils strokes very slowly and in a few layers, which means I am still learning to be patient. Not very easy for me, but I am making progress!

 

Coloured Pencils - a steep learning curve

Painting with coloured pencils needs a lot of patience. And when I say "a lot" I mean a lot. Unfortunately I am not a very patient person, at least regarding my art activities. I love to throw paint around. But on the other hand I somehow love painting with coloured pencils and so I decided to sit down and learn being patient. I decided to learn to apply those tiny little strokes on the paper till the paper can't be seen anymore. I decided to learn to focus on the spot I am actually working on. And this activity somehow appears to have a zen-like character - which I begin to find pleasing...

 

Abstract painting with Coloured Pencils

I love to paint abstract paintings. I have been using acrylic markers, alcoholbased markers, Neocolor 2 watersoluble wax crayons. Would it be possible to paint abstract with coloured pencils? Most of the coloured pencil artists I know on YouTube are doing realistic, often photorealistic art with their pencils. Photorealistic art however doesn't interest me. I prefer a photo to photorealistic art. Of course that is my totally subjective opinion. And I have to admit, that photorealistic coloured pencil artists can do wonders with their medium.

I like to brush mediums against the grain - and so I sat down and did this abstract painting. I used some odorless mineral spirit to blend the coIours, using q-tips. I am quite pleased with it, I must say. The only thing I have to get used to is the amount of time one has to put into the process...

 

Merboy

There are many artists who use watercolour for the base layer of their colored pencil pieces. So I thought why not replace watercolour with Neocolor 2 (the liquid version)? 

 

Going abstract again with Neocolor II

It is fun to smoosh paint with those Neocolor II crayons. Dipping their tips into the water creates such a vivid opaque effect. Of course it almost melts the crayons down. Some of my crayons are already halfway down; fortunately I can get the single crayons here in my favorite art shops in Berlin. 

 

Three Snakes

This painting looks like a watercolour painting, right? But it is not. I was still using my neocolor II watersoluble wax crayons, the Neocolor II, but in a somewhat different way. Instead of dipping the tips in the water I used a wet brush to take pigments from the tip of the crayons and then painted with it. This makes it look much more transparent and delicate.

 

Having fun with abstract painting

Some people think that the neocolor II watersoluble wax crayons are only for kids and not for "real artists". That may be the reason that there is not much information on the web on how to use them for "serious" paintings. 

In the last days I found out how versatile they are: You can apply them dry on the paper and then add a touch of a wet brush (the brush should not be too wet, though!); you can dip the tip into the water and get a really creamy mark on the paper; you can use the shavings as a kind of palette. You can mix colours by mixing the shavings or by applying the crayons one over the other. 
 

Autumn leaves

Well, it is August, still a summer month, but fall is not too far away. I am under the impression that the year has just flown by! 

I am still playing with my watersoluble wax crayons made by Caran d'Ache. I am deeply enjoying the luminance of the colours, and, as someone who hasn't got a studio, how easy it is to put the medium away after having stopped painting. I simply put the crayons back in their boxes, empty the water container and clean the waterbrush with clear water. Paint on my hands can simply be washed away under the running tap...

Underwater creature no 2

This underwater creature was not planned. The colour combination was not planned or tried out in Photoshop. It simply came into existence during the painting process.

I know that many artists plan their paintings very carefully. It is not that I don't find it fascinating how colour combos are tried out in photoshop or small sketches are drawn before actually starting the painting itself. But obviously I cannot get myself to do it!

 

Snake character

There are thousand videos on YouTube where you can learn acrylic painting. There are thousand videos on YouTube showing you how to paint with watercolours. But it looks like the neocolor 2 crayons from Caran d'Ache are merely looked upon as a medium for children or colorists. There are only a handful of usable videos for someone who - like me - wants to use these watersoluble crayons as a medium for painting.

So I have to experiment myself, learn which things work and which do not. In general I like experimenting - but having somebody to learn from can make things a lot easier and time-saving!

 

Mysterious underwater creature

I definitely love experimenting with my neocolors II watersoluble wax crayons. In detail experimenting means:

• apply layers of different colours directly on the paper, which can mean mixing colours directly on the paper by applying black and then for example blue;
• mix the shavings in one empty yoghurt cup by giving the shavings a gentle shake or stirring them with a palette knife
• first apply the crayons directly on the paper and then go over it with a second colour which has been created by shavings and wet by a tiny bit of water