Pencil colouring help

[Guest NicoleMarie]

My name is Nicole. I'm new to IB Survival. I'm actually on here because I have a piece due for IB Art and I have less than two days to complete it. Its a 14 by 18 inch stil life that needs to be done completely in colored pencil. I think I can get most of it done, however, if I can't decide if I'm going to add another color or not, I'm 'screwed'.

Input would be much appreciated at this point.

Here is a picture of my subject. I took the photo, its not copywrighted material. However, since the arrangement wasn't arranged by me I feel like I need to change it around a bit.

The arrangement has four colors. Violet, orange, yellow and green. I'm thinking of replacing the yellow-orange spikey petaled flowers(Might be dalias) with lotus blossoms. These only come in pink and white, I think. So, if I were to do that it would add a fifth color to the piece and mess up the color balance of the arrangent. Now I can keep it four colors by replacing the yellow with pink...

Here are my options:

1. Not go through the trouble of changing the flowers and leave it as is... And live with the fact that I didn't change it.

2. Change the flowers mentioned to Lotus blossums, thus adding a fith color.

3. Try to keep the piece 4 colors by replacing all the yellow flowers to the color of the Lotus blossom.

I've also been thinking of adding some orchids...

What do you think?

Edited April 30, 2008 by HMSChocolate

[Bandev]

Add Orchids!Add Orchids!Add Orchids!Add Orchids!Add Orchids!Add Orchids!Add Orchids!

I Love Orchids!

Sorry that probably doesnt help you but wateva

I dont know why your worrying about "colour balance" or wat that is, which probably shows that I dont do IB art and therefore you shouldn't take advice from me. However if would like some fake profound stuff that you can say about your art in the exhibition but it actually doesnt sound fake, I am an expert, I can whip up BS that sounds intelligent for any artwork.

[~Lc~]

oka I think you have enough colour right now I mean you've used quite a variety of it.. and they matc so it's a two thumbs up for that. What I think would give the picture more life is if you add a bit more contrast between the flowers, right now it all looks mingled in a way.. I mean you can tell the flowers apart so you do actually have some contrast, but I if you rearrange some flowers (like put a darker colour behind a lighter coloured flower so the lighter one in front would show better). I think if you used a darker green for the leaves it would help with the contrast issue. The tricky part in the bouqets is that it usually turns out all mushy with no focus point, so you don't really feel comfortable looking at it anyway you don't have to go on a unt and look for darker leaves, just use ur imagination and make them darker as you colour them afterall as artists we must always learn to be confident enough to improvise (or that's what my art teacher used to tell me )

on a side note I know I got a 4 in art HL, but I've gotten a B in As art and IGCSE art and my themes were allways still life so my advice is a tad credible

[Guest NicoleMarie]

Thanks. I am definately going to use your advice. I think I was already moving in that direction. The orange I selected for the Day lilies is much more bright and vibrant thatn the actual color. And after I couldnt find a good green for the leaves, I chose one and went over it in black to make it darker. Right now, its looking good where its met with the orange and purple.

I also asked a firend of mine who got a seven on his IB Art last year. He told me something similar but suggested that I omit a flower or add one and make a few subtle changes like that.

Other than color, I've decided not to change around the arrangement too much. The person who arranged it did a wonderful job of keeping it balanced and interesting to look at. I don't want to accidentally mess that up.

Thanks for your help. I've decided. Now I just need to get going on it.

[~Lc~]

great good luck with it, I have a feeling it's going to look beautiful

[Guest NicoleMarie]

Baaaad picture of my start.

I'll take a pic of the finsihed thing and put it here too... sometime.

Edited September 9, 2007 by NicoleMarie

[Graeme]

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out .

[Guest NicoleMarie]

I'm so screwed. I'm not even half done yet. And since I'm forcing myself to keep going, its starting to look like **** to me. I'm starting to wonder if I should just take the consequences and go to bed. I think I have two weeks before my second piece is due. If I spend another week on this and then do something simple like... chinese brush painting the next week, it should even out...

Wow. This is like... Going to my IB crisis of the month. So early in the year, too, to be starting IB crisis... Oh well. I chose it.

Masochist.

Here's where I am now:

Edited September 10, 2007 by NicoleMarie

[~Lc~]

listen why don't you just start with the light colours first then go to and do the darker ones, I mean my art teacher taught us to always leave the dark for last, you know gradually go into it rather than bluntly do it.. what kind of paper are you using? if your not using canson, I suggest you use it I don't know why pencil colours on canson just looks better to me hehe

the reason why you don't like it a lot right now is that the base is too dark and doesn't have much form... it's kinda dead you need to have an area on it where there's a reflection, if not a very obvious on, then just a some areas where it's lighter than others..

the flowers look promising though I think later on when you're done you should introduce more strange colours to the shaded regions (like the pink flower up there, add some blue to the shaded part, it might look weird to you when u first look at it but it'll look good when you look at it form a distance)

EDIT:

here's a pic of a pencil colours peice I did back in the 10th grade ( for my IGCSE work book)

no I'm not showing off just put it there to show you how shading with weird colours actually produces something nice (my art teacher had to yell and scream at me for a while until I agreed to follow her advice )

[Guest NicoleMarie]

Ok. I'm still not done... TT_TT I had to move on. I did a chinese Brush landscape in the meantime.

I hope to finish soon. But it was a raindy weekend... I wasn't feeling ver artistic... I Hurt all over. I miss the Sun. I guess I'm one of those people who gets depressed when the sun isn't out. Isn't that sad? I guess I could never move north.

[~Lc~]

aww it's ok! I hated doing art when there was no sun out as well! then again I love doing it at insane hours at the night

[Guest Daintydog]

Well it seems to be working nicely so far. I dont really understande why you thought you should change anything from the original motif. I mean, its going to be YOUR interpretation no matter what. One doesn't usually change peoples figures of faces when drawing a portrait, just because one didnt "make" that person.

Their parents did, and they aint gonna su u

Its looks really pretty by the way keep up the good work

[Guest NicoleMarie]

Hey thanks.

By the way, if anyone wants to know... its still not done. I've moved on. But since then, i've got alot done. If my Camera weren't dead I could shoe you. However I only seem to remember at night, when its too dark to take a photo of it. The lamplight makes it look so dull. Sunlight is needed.

I'm still behind. But almost everyone is. We are supposed to have our fourth done by friday. I've only turned in one so far. But I have the planes Outlined for two of them. I would take a mental health day If my attendance record wasn't something I was proud of. God, listen to me. Maybe I should take more mental health days.

Anyway, I'll try and get some pics up here, so you all can see how I'm doing!

Oh, here is some stuff from my RWB (reasearch Workbook) A thumbnail/practice for my Chinese brush landscape. There is some bs attached to this stuff but I think I'll spare you guys.

Research:

(1) Ancient chinese art.

A. A handscroll

Another one:

My first attempt at a handscroll:

...Sucked

Some practice with the brush:

Some pics I looked at:

You gotta love google

Finally, I started getting better.

Here is the thumbnail for my big piece. It was originally just practice but I liked it so much that I re-did it bigger.

And then I wanted to finish it off the traditional way, with a seal and some calligraphy.... Totally didn't work. Calligraphy was HARD. and Ink is permanent. So I wasn't about to risk defiling my work with a bad brushstroke. And I didn't have a seal that would be apropriate for it.

A sad attempt at mastering calligraphy in three days( you gotta love havin a piece due every two weeks). I wound up with this ****:

And here is a seal that means Peace. (I spent hours scanning the internet for it. And then had a friend who studied japanese not chinese tell me what it was. I know the characters are the same but... I can't believe she knew any of them at all.)

Peace:

Hope you enjoyed!

Edited October 16, 2007 by NicoleMarie

[Guest NicoleMarie]

Ok! I'm almost done!!!!

here is a picture in poor lighting:

Now I have a dillema. What to do with the backround and what its resting on?

Open to suggestions again!

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Wow the Chinese brush painting of the valley is really nice. I like it.

And it's incredible that I know that Chinese character you're trying to write.

It's this character isn't it?

As for how I happen to know some random Chinese character like that... erm...let's just say I watch too much of a particular Chinese drama, that's all.

Being artistically challenged I won't attempt to suggest what you can do with the background. I'll leave that to Lc.

[Lil]

Hey, your works are really good! NicoleMarie I think you should take some bright colour for the background but not yellow or orange..also I would lighten the bottom of the pot

[Guest NicoleMarie]

Hey, your works are really good! NicoleMarie I think you should take some bright colour for the background but not yellow or orange..also I would lighten the bottom of the pot

I agree. It needs a bright color back there. I was thinking of using a light blue for the backround. Oh, and the pot isn't really that dark. It looks almost black here doesn't it? Ick. Well, Its actually a somewhat dark green. Bad lighting in my house, and an even more crappy camera.

Oh, and HMS Chocloate, It really does look like the character I was trying to paint. I think it's "Eternity" I loved doing Chinese brush. It was so much fun.

Edited October 22, 2007 by NicoleMarie

[Lil]

I agree. It needs a bright color back there. I was thinking of using a light blue for the backround. Oh, and the pot isn't really that dark. It looks almost black here doesn't it? Ick. Well, Its actually a somewhat dark green. Bad lighting in my house, and an even more crappy camera.

Oh, and HMS Chocloate, It really does look like the character I was trying to paint. I think it's "Eternity" I loved doing Chinese brush. It was so much fun.

Blue is Ok. but mix it with white it will be better It looks like it's almost black but nevermind, i'm sure u will make it really good! :innocent: