Colored Pencils with a bit more planning

I must admit - I mostly do not plan my paintings. I've got an image in my mind - often a blurred one - and then I grab my medium - be it pencils, acrylic inks or whatnot - and begin to paint. However I've got the feeling that I might be more satisfied with my paintings if I invest more time in planning. 

So I drew out the lines with a graphite pencil first with this painting. Then I thought about which color might fit at what place best. Then I grabbed my colored pencils. 

This way of painting with colored pencils is one thing I'd like to do more in 2025. And there is a second thing I'd like to do: weed out my reference binder. Up to now I haven't used my AI images as reference images at all. I've got some of them printed out in the size of postcards; but it might be better to have them printed out in a bigger size. So I pasted one of my latest AI images on an Office Writer page, transformed that into a pdf file and will have it printed out at the beginning of the new year.
 

Colored Pencils painting No 2

This painting was done with colored pencils. I used mostly Polychromos from Faber-Castell, but also some Pablos from Caran d'Ache. Here in Germany it is easy to buy single colored pencils from Faber-Castell and Caran d'Ache. Derwent colorsoft pencils are more difficult to get, but you can get them online. I haven't seen Prismacolor pencils yet, neither in a shop or even online.
The surface here is watercolor paper. The blending is done with Baby oil. 

I am still creating AI Art, but I notice that there is a certain shift of focus. I spend at least an equal amount of time painting with my colored pencils, and there is even a tendency at the moment to spend more time experimenting with my pencils. 

Playing with colored pencils

 

Colored pencils were one of my first art mediums. I used them for a few paintings, but then I had the feeling that I did not like them. Yesterday I suddenly felt like painting with them, so I grabbed them and a tiny container with baby oil and began to paint (I know, that many artists say "draw with colored pencils", but I definitely paint with them, as you can see on the image on the left hand side.).

I used watercolor paper, and I deeply enjoyed the process. So I think that colored pencils will be my art medium for the time coming - of course in addition to creating images with Artificial Intelligence!

Polar bear and cub

 

During the last weeks I have focussed on creating images with AI Art Generators. I had problems with my heating, and the only room which could be heated sufficiently by an electric heater was the room with my desk and the laptop standing on it.

I am not paying any money for creating with AI Art generators, and in the meantime I do this with Nightcafe Studio, Mage Space, Dreamlike AI, Civitai and Bing. Limewire cannot be used for free anymore, and Playground AI does only design anymore. However I am absolutely content with the AI Generators I can still use for free. 

The results you can get with Bing are amazing. I used one prompt:
"Polar bear and cub are walking over the ice, watercolor style, Daniel Merriam."

As you can see, Bing created two images, showing different interactions between the polar bear and the cub. It would be easy to use these two illustrations in a story telling about the polar bear mother and its cub.