There’s a lot of studio news for November 2024, so let’s get started.
Studio News for November 2024
Beautiful Belgian Workshop
The workshop continued, with classes meeting November 9 and 23. One more student joined us, so welcome aboard, if it was you!
The big news, though, is that PDF workbooks for each session are now available, beginning with the very first session. Workbooks and videos are available for review and students can download the workbooks.
The next class is Saturday, December 7. If necessary, there will be a fifth class later in December.
If you can’t make every class, there’s ample time to catch up between sessions. I will be available to answer questions during and between classes.
CP Magic! News
Annemieke de Wit is the featured artist for December. This artist from the Netherlands has an interesting art journey.
Her tutorial features one of her favorite subjects, but it’s not a subject we see much in artwork of any kind. What is it? A vulture. Annemieke makes her subject—a white-headed vulture with a fanciful feather boa—beautiful, and shows you how to, too.
If you prefer print, you can get the December issue in print here.
The second issue of the CP Magic annual showcase, Your Best Colored Pencil Work of 2023, is also available in print here.
Current Works in Progress
Horse Portrait
After a false start with Pastelbord, I switched to Pastelmat for this portrait, transferred the drawing, and began with an umber underdrawing.
The restart isn’t for the usual reason. I simply wasn’t happy with the placement of the horse on the Pastelbord. It’s easier to get placement correct with Pastelmat, because I can make the drawing a little larger than needed, then center it with a mat. That’s an unexpected benefit of using paper rather than a rigid support. If I use more rigid supports in the future, I may have to buy a frame of the appropriate size and put the drawing in that. That’s always a good way to check placement before transferring the line drawing.
I will be using the Pastelbord for something else once I get this portrait well underway and have concluded a couple of other responsibilities.
I have the permission of the client to share my progress with you, which I will be doing in a series of posts. The first one published November 30, and you can read it here.
This is what the portrait looked like at the end of November.
Two Landscapes
The portrait is now at the top of my working list, along with the Belgian foal. So there wasn’t much work on either of my landscapes-in-progress for November.
I worked on Flint Hills Haze, but not on the third version. Instead, I went back to the second version, which is on Colourfix. The main reason for that decision was that I decided on a more panoramic crop, and also wanted to make some changes to the sky. I didn’t want to start cutting on the third version, which is much further along.
I may crop it vertically a bit more. Who knows? Sometimes that’s the only way to deal with a problem piece of art.
I didn’t do anything with Flint Hills Haze V1 or V3. Nor did I work on the untitled Flint Hills drawing.
ACEOs
I did draw a few ACEOs, but was so busy with other things (not to mention a 3-day bout with a flu bug) that I only made four ACEOs for the month.
Drawing Time for the Month
Despite working on the workshop project and a portion, I managed just short of 18 hours of drawing for November. The goal for the month was 21 hours. There are some months when I’m glad to just put pencil to paper for even a few minutes once in a while. November was one of those months.
However, the goal for the year is looking good. At 5 hours of drawing per week every week, the year should end with a total of 260 hours spent drawing. At the end of November, total hours spent drawing for 2024 was over 247. I’m almost there!
Looking to the Future
Plans for the immediate future is finishing the Belgian foal portrait for the workshop and the Quarter Horse portrait for the client. I also plan to make as many ACEOs as possible in December and beyond.
I don’t know what other art projects will come my way, though I’m looking at doing at least two sky drawings starting next year.
And don’t forget the 2025 showcase of colored pencil artwork, which publishes in February 2025. Submissions are now open and the deadline for submitting work is January 15, 2025. You can read the guidelines and learn how to submit your best or favorite artwork from 2024 here.
That’s the Studio News for November 2024
The year is winding down in a fairly busy-looking way. Keeping it all organized and moving forward is going to be a project all it’s own.
I hope you’ll join me as often as you can here on the blog, via the newsletter and magazine, and in the workshop.
In the meantime, let’s keep drawing!
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