Thursday, September 17, 2015

Crazy Pinterest Lady, Alien Abductions, and Random Colored Pencil Artsy Goodness

This week I have been quite busy with my "day job", which is writing articles for other people's blogs, so I feel bad for neglecting my own blog of artsy goodness. My work schedule is clear today, and I just tore myself away from Pinterest to start this post. For the record, Pinterest is my weakness, an ultimate time suctioning site that entices my visual thinker-and-learner brain with a smorgasbord of high-quality images that usually link to sources of even more images. Honestly, I lose more hours with Pinterest than a UFO abductee. Wait, maybe the E.Ts are in on it...

Anyway, yeah, Pinterest. My Pinner name is Cray Z. CatLady, by-the-way, and I have several boards that I maintain to satisfy my eclectic interests. I have a few boards related to art, of course, and I have found many fantastic websites and blogs during my Pinterest binges. One of them is the Sketchblog run by UK artist Lianne Williams, who shares my love of colored pencils, or "coloured pencils" as they spell it over there (I think the word is prettier with the "u" in it, personally).



image of Lianne Williams Sketchblog logo
Lianne's Logo from her Sketchblog
Image belongs to Lianne Williams


I really want to share this post from her blog because it reinforces my belief that expensive art materials are not necessary to make great art. In her post, Lianne creates a beautiful colored pencil portrait using Crayola colored pencils. Originally, I followed a Pin to one of her May articles, "My Essential Colour Pencil Techniques". She seems to be a great fan of the Polychromos!






Affiliate Disclaimer: For full transparency, you should know that many of my links in my posts are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission when readers purchase items using my affiliate links. This helps me fund the blog domain costs, and you will not be charged extra if you buy anything using my links. 

While I have a special love for certain artist grade varieties, I am all for using whatever you can afford or find. My eclectic stash of CPs does, indeed, include some random Prang and Crayolas, and I have the big deluxe box of Crayola crayons in my chest of drawing goodies. I use my Koh-I-Noor Progresso Woodless Colored Pencils often as well. They are not as cheap or easy to find as Crayola, but they are extremely affordable and durable.

Also, if you have a serious interest in colored pencil art, I would suggest checking out the Colored Pencil Magazine website and the "CPM Contests and Giveaways" blog. Currently, CPM is sponsoring a giveaway for a set of 12 Faber-Castell Polychromos. They have these contests regularly, so it doesn't hurt to subscribe. The prizes are always fantastic, at least in the eyes of colored pencil artists. The magazine is very nice, too. I am considering renewing my subscription after I pay off some bills. I have entered their monthly challenges in the past, but I have never won. That's okay because entering these competitions motivated me to create finished pieces and push my own skills with challenging subjects, like shiny candy wrappers:


Colored pencil art candies and shiny dishes
My September 2013 entry for the CPM monthly challenge


Personally, I love colored pencil, and I think the medium has begun to gather serious interest in the art world, thanks to many great artists who have created brilliant art works and published books about their techniques. I have several in my library. Do you have any favorite colored pencil books that you would recommend to fellow artists?

I hope that one day my own skills will evolve to the point where people will want to learn my techniques as well.


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