Burnish, baby burnish.

There are lots of different types of burnishing when it comes to colored pencils, my favorite with this piece has been tonal burnishing. I will do this several times in a section. I start by layering my colors on top of each other with a very light hand (this is achieved by holding the pencil further back), going in opposite directions with very consistent tiny circular strokes, and keeping my pencil point razor sharp while building up layers of color. I'm not heavy handed but I do apply more pressure with a Caran d'Ache Pablo white or light grey pencil towards the end, when I have my colors down. I will go back then and add a bit more color and burnish again with the white or light grey pencil...doing this several times until I have a beautiful rich glazed look. What happens with burnishing, is that it causes the color to fill up the entire tooth of the paper...making it very smooth looking. 

In the darker areas of this piece I will burnish with a dark blue and reddish Pablo. Just remember to gradually build up your dark colors as once they are down they are hard to erase.

Burnishing is one of the last steps in this whole process, which can be quite tedious at times, but the results create a sleek and fantastic finish!

Materials used: 
Stonehenge white paper (sheet)
Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils
Caran d'Ache Pablo pencils

To see more of my process and short videos check out my Instagram (kathrynhansendrawings) page here.

The dog days of summer are over!

After two and a half years of only drawing dogs for clients I finally received a kitty commission!! 

Cats and whiskers make an irresistible combination to draw!  I find the process of drawing them in colored pencil a completely different experience from drawing them in graphite. Altho I highly enjoy both, each medium has their own challenges! Adding/layering color into the mix on top of values and textures is certainly an adventure, sometimes in fun other times in frustration!!!

Other commissions this year:

Molly (c) 2016 July 8x10

Rossa (c) 2016 May 8x10

Teddy (c) 2016 May 6x8


Kitty drawings in my Etsy shop:

The Dog did it! (c) 2016  5x7  $155

Forty Winks (c) 2016  5x7 $155

It was all so far away~

there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country and I could work as I pleased.

~Georgia O'Keeffe~

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Standing outside Georgia O'Keefe's home in Abiquiu (top photographs) after our engaging tour, my heart just opened to the breathtaking beauty of New Mexico! The landscape, skies, architecture, Georgia's home and art has left a HUGE impression on me, not to mention all the incredible galleries there! In fact, since I've been back from Santa Fe I've had two vivid dreams of painting in Georgia O'Keeffes sparse studio! 

Seeing her work up close for the first time just left me in awe! The intensity of her colors and shapes were so inspiring. I know in my heart this will lead me in new directions down the road. I am hoping to take a pastel workshop with one of my favorite artists, Barbara Jaenicke next summer to kick start what I feel is my new direction with my art!!

Until then I am continuing on with teaching myself colored pencil, which has been enjoyable, challenging, frustrating and wonderful!

My current piece: Sacred Monkey Forest

And the drawing I just finished of a mountain lion cub: A Paws in Time

 

From Z to A

This is the third Grevy's zebra I've drawn and all 3 have 1 thing in common. 

It's the exact same zebra, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent ( I always name my animals while drawing them!) 

The Hitchhiker  Kathryn Hansen (c) 2015  6.25x9.75

This time however, I've created Jebediah in Polychromo colored pencil. A huge challenge as I wasn't expecting to use 12 colors in creating him! I am so new to colored pencil that my naivete regarding this medium really showed itself but I muddled through it and I'm very happy with the results!!!

Bakora, Jerry and Jebediah are all from Lewa Downs Conservancy, located in northern Kenya. Once a cattle ranch, it then became a sanctuary to protect the elusive black rhino, and then onto become a non-profit wildlife Conservancy where we saw the 3 cheetah brothers, giraffes, elephants, both white and black rhinos, ostriches and more!!

Bakora  Kathryn Hansen (c) 2012 5x5

Just Passing Through  Kathryn Hansen (c) 2014  5x8

Ladies and gentlemen, the main event today, world championship colored pencil match.

In the Ultramarine corner, all the way from Yonkers, New York...weighing in at .17 ounces is Prismacolor pencils. 

In the crimson corner, all the way from Cleveland, Ohio...weighing in at .22 ounces is Polychromo pencils.

Lets have a good clean fight!

Prismacolor pencils (P1)

Polychromo pencils (P2) (drawing in progress)

With only about 3 hours into my fox drawing with Poychromos pencils I can already tell the huge difference between the two pencils.

These are my observations~

1) I am able to get the fine details that I normally get with my Tombow graphite pencils using P 2. plus I can use my Tombow pencils right along side the colored pencils...all the whiskers are with graphite.

2) My biggest pet peeve was all the tiny wax pieces everywhere with P1, no matter how careful I was! I was scraping off pieces with a razor blade on my swan...you can see slight residue on the actual piece.

3) I would have a beautiful sharpened point on P1 but as soon as I started drawing, it would break...my second biggest pet peeve with P1!! I know I am heavy handed with my pencils but come on! I did not have that issue with P2.

4) My local art store carries both pencils and I noticed that P2 had a lot less colors...altho the whole point of cp is to layer to get a beautiful vibrancy, so I'm not seeing this as an issue...but I am still a newbie at this!

5) Price- A LOT more for P2 than P1, BUT, because of the breaking points, I had to sharpen way more and so I went through 2 black and 2 white pencils on my tiger...I probably would not have with P2

6) I was able to erase the Polychromo pencils!! Because P1 is wax based erasing is impossible.

7) I have about the same amount of layers on both drawings, altho I pretty sure I can go with more on my fox (P2)

8) P2 pencils are wider so they barely fit in my pencil sharpener...I have to tug them out.

9) I had heard that the white P2 pencil did not work well, so instead I just bought a Caran d'Aches Blanc pencil to use and it worked perfectly along side P2

So, despite a few glitches such as price and width, the clear champion for me is the Polychromo pencils!