“Rose Alike” – Belinda Lindhardt
Artwork size: 44   X 68 cms
Framed: 78  X 91cms

I think we are done

This artwork will be on display and for sale this coming weekend at the Central Coast Grammar School Spring Fair Art Exhibition.

Details to come

Pencils, pencils and more pencils

So this past month I have been busy, has it really been over a month? Oh yes it has.

Unbelievable. Anywho, I have been very busy this past month with pencils on the brain though I havent been doing any artwork.
Many of you may be aware I have started a while back the Australian Coloured Pencil network website. The site has been through a few changes and discussions regarding its future during the past year, everyone wants an Australian coloured pencil society but logistics of creating and managing one are somewhat restricted given logistics and location of willing members plus due to the fact that we are still a relatively small group of people.

Next best thing  was a redevelopment of a website, moving the existing site into more of a paid membership site. I would really love to continue providing the service for free, but I am not in the position to be able to provide this at the moment. So the choice was either redevelop or close the site all together.

So I have been busy building a site which contains: a forum, a member gallery, a directory, a membership system, a blog and other stuff to go along with it.
Anyone thinking of creating a website like this, even myself who is an experienced web designer and developer of over 15years has been surprised about just how long it has taken me to do and I am still not there yet! Tweaks, bugs, downloads updates the time to sort some of these out has been much longer than I would have thought. So I know there are a couple of business people reading this,  if you are thinking about this for your business be prepared!! And also be prepared that your web developer would have to charge for their time to sort these out. If  I had been charging for my time it would have been a costly exercise or I most definitely would have lost money – grrrr technical issues.

Now, the site has arrived at a workable stage – I have been so pleased to have the support of existing ACPN members who have supported me in the change over and become members of the site its been fantastic!

Head over to www.colouredpencils.com.au. You can visit the blog or signup for a limted time FREE membership. While I iron out all the bugs!

So that’s what I have been up to. I am glad to have a bit of a breather, still working on it but not as frantically as I have been. I am now able to concentrate on preparing for quite a few exhibitions I have coming up in September and October.  I have an idea for a new artwork but I am debating on whether to tackle it yet or get some other tasks out of the way first.

I have also had lots of inquiries regarding my workshops so I still have on the cards to offer some of my classes or workshops online. I am thinking it maynot be until the new year however? Or maybe in time for Christmas!!! Now there is an idea!

The end of the year will be here before you know it!

Still going with this one, layers layers and more layers

Progress on my latest work: As you can see,  I have added lots more layers of colour particularly on the yellow pear and some of the red.

For Artists: One of the things when I am at this stage of working is to be always checking my values.  I constantly check a black and white reference of the pears just to make sure I have the values of the shadows in the right position and that they are dark enough.
It’s really important with a round object like this to also use  pencil strokes in direction of the contours of the object you are creating.

This is where it’s really important to have knowledge of how the object is 3D / real life.   I tend to imagine how that curve is rather than try to copy what is on the photo. If I was to copy exactly what i see on the photo then  I would get a very flat looking piece.
This is why drawing from life regularly is so important even though you use  a photo as a reference in your final artwork, its important to understand how something REALLY is in order to capture that.

This is my first coloured pencil piece where I think I am going to leave a lot of the paper white. In most of my pieces i will  generally cover all areas of the paper but  I don’t think it needs it in this instance, we will see how it progresses when I get further to the end.

That’s it for now, on for more layers.

Anyone for pencils ? June 2^nd Workshop 2010

Last Wednesday we had a really great coloured pencil workshop.

I covered an Introduction to Coloured Pencils,  which means my participants got to colour in a bunch of boxes and circles. – hehehe
In this introduction workshop I  try to cover important things when starting out in coloured pencil art covering things like paper, pencils other coloured pencil artists going onto things like strokes, blending techniques,  mixing colours etc. Participants don’t walk away with a completed piece but i hope they come away with some ideas and new ways of working and a understanding about how coloured pencil artworks come together.

It was really good, i had a great time, i am really enjoying the teaching process in these workshops, and its so exciting for me to see other artists getting excited by all they could create with their pencils.

In the next workshop which will be on the 16^th June,  I hope to get into some of the more advanced techniques maybe getting students to work on a section of a picture to get a feel for mixing colours, planning an artwork, perhaps getting to experiment with some other supports.

So, I have lots to update you with but its Sunday arvo and I am not up for doing that right now, what are Sundays better for than rest and a bit of inspiration for the week ahead.

Enjoy!

June 2010 Coloured Pencil Workshop

In conjunction with the CCAS (Central Coast Art Society), my workshops for the society are coming up on June 2nd & 16th 2010.

These workshops are some of the very few colouredpencil workshops using dry pencils happening in Australia and I am excited to providing these again, I hope some local coloured pencil artists and artists wanting to find out more information will come along and have a great morning of pencils.
Last year I was so inspired to have such a lovely group of people from all levels and teach them all about pencils and its been fantastic to see some of these artists exhibiting coloured pencil artworks following this workshop in both CCAS and various Sydney exhibitions.

This year I want to again try to cater to both artists who have had no coloured pencil experience as well as those who came last year so depending on how many we have of both on the day see how we go.  I will try to specify that if you are a beginner please try to come to the first workshop as I will cover beginner techniques specifically on that day.

I will also try to have some supplies for sale on the day such as stonehenge paper and some polychromos and prismacolour pencils. One reason being that you as can’t get prismacolors up here on the coast. If anyone is at all interested in purchasing anything else let me know ASAP so i can cater for it. I was considering perhaps purchasing some Zest-It as there were many people interested in this last year– anyone?

Time: 9:30am to 12:30pm

Location: Gosford Art Gallery – the Studios
32 Web St, EastGosford NSW

Cost: $10- Including Morning Tea

Date 2nd June 2010 – Introduction to Coloured Pencils

This workshop will be covering an introduction to using coloured pencils. We will cover different coloured pencil materials, artists, techniques, supports, skills and process used in creating coloured pencil artworks. In this workshop you will come away with an understanding more about working with coloured pencils as medium as well as being exposed to the basics in creating coloured pencil artworks.

Date 16th June 2010 – Continuing on with Coloured Pencil Artworks

This workshop is where we will go beyond the basics working with complimentary colours, planning an artwork more advanced blending techniques.
I will demonstrate my processes with various supports for different effects and speeding up work time. From this workshop participates will gain exposure to different ways of working with pencils used in completing a coloured pencil artwork.

Reference materials and photos will be supplied on both days, however if you have something specific you wish to work on please bring it along.

Materials: As a guide it is best to use quality artists pencils and good quality paper for pencil work or you will be frustrated with the results.
So please bring along:  Stonehenge paper - can be bought in large sheets at Eckersleys (cut down into more manageable sizes)  or bring along your best drawing paper.
Pencils: Either Prismacolour or polychromos pencils in at least 3 values of the 1 colour of your choice eg. light blue, medium blue & dark blue & white pencil.
Cotton buds for blending and makeup pads if desired.

I will have materials available for artists to “try” on the day and I will have a small supply of papers and pencils to purchase if you wish but not required.

You don’t have to be a member to enjoy the society so there is no excuse hope to see you there!

"Luscious Pear", by Belinda Lindhardt

Marking this one off for “completed” Now I just have to frame it

Artwork Details:

Title: Luscious Pear
Ref No. 076
Artwork Size: 11 X 14 inches or 27.9 X 35.5 cms
Frame: Light Wood with white matt, size : 45x56cms
Medium: Artists Coloured Pencils on Paper, with UV protective coating
Hours: 30 hours approx
Cost: TBC
Prints and Gretting Cards Available

See the works in progress:

http://www.belindalindhardt.com.au/wp/index.php/pear-green-leaf-colored-pencil-on-stonehenge/coloured-pencil/
http://www.belindalindhardt.com.au/wp/index.php/pear-green-leaf-wip/uncategorized/
http://www.belindalindhardt.com.au/wp/index.php/pear-green-leaf-coloured-pencil-wip-inspiring-book/coloured-pencil/
http://www.belindalindhardt.com.au/wp/index.php/green-pear-coloured-pencil-wip/coloured-pencil/

Where you can view it:

CCAS Summer Exhibition 15th – 17th January, The Studios – Web St, East Gosford. http://www.artcentralcoast.asn.au

As part of the discussions happening over on the Australian Coloured Pencil network of late, when creating my Santa hat illustration I took some photos and video which has just been uploaded over on the CP resources page.

If your interested in the technique or just want to see how i created my illustration go over and check it out

http://www.colouredpencils.com.au/cpresources/

If you like the video let me know, its a bit sketchy i know but its my first would like to do some more in the future

Today is the end of a very busy week, what is great about this week is that i have managed to tick off a few things on my list that have been weighing me down both for work and personally.

To say that i have had  a bit of weight taken off my shoulders is a bit of an understatement, i have to say i have been struggling of late, i know part of it has been taking on too much, trying to achieve too much, but at the same time, they are all things that need doing. I am learning to prioritize  better and allow more contingency time in the future that will give me a bit more space to breathe, i need it.

This week i have completed 4 websites! Admittedly,  two have been in development for the past few months but they have all been made live this week which is fantastic .

One is the new Central Coast Art Society website, of which i am very proud to have completed. I was elected as a committee member earlier in the year to help out the existing webmaster with the website.

The previous CCAS had outrun its service and was becoming very hard to manage as the site was growing. So i am very happy to have provided the CCAS with a new website that will hopefully serve the society better for a while to come.
I am really proud to help bring art to the wider community and to be helping out local artists through this community society. Its really good perspective to be involved with a community project / service I thoroughly recommend it, if its not something you have previously been involved with.

Check out the site at: http://www.artcentralcoast.asn.au and if your a central coast artist – are you a member ? You get a FREE profile on the site!

Second website of the week is  Australian Coloured Pencil network .

This website has been running for a while on the ning network. To be honest I have always struggled with the ning system but for lack of time to research and find a better system, i figured anything was better than nothing and went with that in my inital launch.

The Australian Coloured Pencil community has defiantly grown since this website started, i am really happy to be doing something to help grow this community and raise the profile of coloured pencil art in Australia and help support other CP artists.

To cut a long story short, this week I was finally able  to implement a new system / website for our members, this website will mean so much more for the members, and will be great for me as there is so much more potential in terms of management, content, etc. as well as the potential for the site to recoup some of costs associated with its running.

So anyway go and check the website out, I still have some content and listings to add, I will get to it when i can, the site is primarily aimed for the Australian Artist but we welcome anyone from around the world so if your a CP artist, come along and say hi -

Australian Coloured Pencil network and we are also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AusCP

That’s it for me for this week, i have also been retouching some paintings this week, getting ready for summer exhibitions in January – stay tuned, now I think i will have a beer and OMG hopefully RELAX!