Please Critique
 

I have only a couple of days to take slides of this and get them sent. Any suggestions will be very helpful as I really want this to be accepted into a show!

Please let me apologize first for the quality of my camera!

This is colored pencil and collage (the scarf and cuffs of the sleeves are collage, all else is colored pencil).

Thanks for taking the time to take a look! Even if you comletely trash it, I'll be OK, I'm strong! He he!(at least with these monitors nobody knows! :D )

Closer
 

This is a little closer, and I hope better quality!

Face
 

And this is a close up of the face.

Carolyn,

It is very nice. You have much talent.

Hi Carolyn,

Very interesting and such great detail. How big is this and how long did it take to complete? I don't work in colored pencil, so I can't critique but put up some more. I love seeing good work.

Tammy

Thanks Margaret & Tammy,

I don't usually go to such extremes with detail, but since this will be my first attempt at trying to get a piece into a serious show I thought I'd better try harder. :sunnysmil

It is 20" x 20". Oh, but it feels like it grows every time I come back to it. I could swear it was 40" x 40" by now! Or the size of a small room! I think I have spent over a hundred hours on it. I can't wait to do a more wild piece after this one is done.

Carolyn,

It looks great. I can't really see the strokes to see what has been burnished or to see the layers of color. It looks good from here. The lines of the back keep the painting contained nicely. Out of curiosity:

1. What are the scarf and sleeves done in? (I think they would look less "pasted on" if they were also CP, but it may have been necessary for them to be collage.)

2. What show are you submitting it to?

3. Who is this interesting gentlemen?

4. What paper was used?

5. What brand pencils?

Great work!

Rebecca

:thumbsup:

Carolyn,

It looks like that bike is rigged to transport canvasses! My heart rate just climbed 10 bpm. As a triathlete (neurotically multi-tasking athlete of the swim-bike-run variety) I have to say, WOW! And, where can I get one? I'm always looking for the balance between cycling or running and painting. After all, there's only so much free time in a day.

Beautiful drawing. What other mediums do you work in? And welcome to this great site.

Rebecca & Mari,
 

Rebecca,

Sorry it's so difficult to see what the drawing really looks like, guess that does make it hard to critique. Digital cameras are just SO expensive! Guess I'd better get one soon though!

1. Done from wallpaper samples to make the scarf and sleeve plaid. I'm sure it would look less pasted on if it were CP, but this is to submit to

2. The CPSA Experimental Exhibition, so I decided to try CP and collage. Maybe the two don't work together so well. Next time I may try something else.

3. This was an artist in Brugge, Belgium. What a beautiful place!

4. I beleive this paper is Strathmore textured gray.

5. Prismacolor

Mari,

Yes, this was a portable studio! It was so great to see. It is actually a tricycle for big people, but you can't tell so easily because the 3rd wheel is behind the subject. It had a large tilted L shape contraption on the back that could carry his art! This was in Belgium. But I suppose we are not too far behind here in the states! :sunnysmil Besides colored pencil, I work in oil. So hopefully soon I'll have a portrait in that critique!

Thanks!

Carolyn,

Any art on the internet can not be seen for the beauty that it surely has. Even with a digital camera the limits of posting make it difficult. I knew there had to be reason for the collage effect. It does blend rather nicely with the painting. I think it was a good decision to use those. They do work together well! I didn't mean for it to sound like they didn't. My husband (not an artist and yet thinks he should be), couldn't tell the difference in what was CP and what wasn't. And he has seen ALOT of CP in the last couple of years! You are very talented and should have no problem succeeding in your art career.

I really like the pieces that I have seen from that exhibit. I would like to enter it some day. I guess I should have thought about doing that before the husband and two kids!

Oh, by the way, I tried the college master's thing and wasn't impressed. (Referring to your introduction post.) For "realistic" artists, sometimes workshops and private studies with those whose style of art you would like to create is much, much, much more beneficial!

Rebecca

Collage and CP
 

No, no I didn't take it badly at all! I guess maybe it is my own insecurities about mixing these two mediums that crept into my reply. I'm glad you think it works! I really hope it does!

Thanks for mentioning about the graduate school thing. It was a bit difficult to get over the rejection(s)! In hindsight, I am not sure that I would have gotten the Bachelor's degree if I would have known I would not have been able to get the Master's. The only reason for taking the collegiate route was to become a professor. But I know for sure I could have learned everything I did from books, and THIS SITE and wouldn't have to pay back a HUGE loan! And I too felt there was an incredible amount of time spent on concepts rather than techniques which makes realism take a back seat. Which, I think, is the same as teaching the alphabet but not teaching how to read and write. Anyway, I am just blabbing now. Guess I have a few opinions on the subject.

Thanks for all of your encouragement!

Wallpaper, eh?? I have a wall
 

Carolyn,

I have a wall of designer fabrics about 10' x 8', packed solid, all left over from my "bedroom" days. You would probably think you had died and gone to heaven. I saved EVERYTHING, thinking that someday I would use it some way in my art. So, if you're ever in the Madison area, I could probably make up a doggie bag of treasures. I admire your patience with the colored pencil. I used them for presentation drawings for my art quilts. I could never put color down fast enough to be satisfying. I love the subject and composition. I'm no professional, but I do know when something is pleasing to me. Good luck at the show.

Thanks, Jean!
 

I may have to take you up on that if I ever find myself in your area! I really love different kinds of paper (scrapbook paper, wallpaper, this is where I go on like Baba from Forrest Gump) and different kinds of material. I have samples of all sorts of fabrics also, that hopefully will be of some use other than just taking up space! Must be some sort of disorder! HA HA!

This was an assignment we had from one of my figure drawing classes where we had to do a collage from one of our drawings. It was so much fun! And it's all just different wallpaper samples! You should try it sometime just to do something different!

Thanks for the offer and the wish of luck!

Wallpaper nude!
 

Wow, what fun. Bet those wallpaper designers didn't have that in mind when they envisioned all those nice leaves and flowers on people's walls, windows and beds! You inspire me but my hands are too arthritic from all the years of cutting and sewing to be able to do much collage. Yet still I keep the fabric, just in case. Please keep showing your work, I enjoy this.