OCTOBER COLORS

When I think of autumn and especially October I think of the black and orange combinations. Orange and black were my school colors when I was in high school. Since I've vowed to work with my oil pastels until I get sick of them, I meant to say until I've mastered them I've decided what better time to showcase one of my favorite color combinations than right now.

What can I paint or sketch that is black? Black cats, bats, and witches hats are a few things that come to mind. When I think of what I can sketch or paint with orange first thing that pops into my head is pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns followed closely by fall leaves.

I've been painting witches because to me nothing says Halloween better than witches or more precisely crones. When I'm working on a crone I tend to use dark and drab colors and the skin tones usually have green and yellow tints. The most recent ones aren't wearing their hats so there hasn't been a lot or black and no orange to speak of. Since I want to work with a more vibrant color I felt a younger more vibrant witch was in order.

Meet Serena...

I know, not really black and orange, but see what happens when I mess around with the lighting.

Still not quite black and orange is it?

This is the closest to the true colors that I used to paint this piece. When I say paint I'm talking about using the oil pastels with water and then to give her hair a bit more of a punch I used two shades of orange acrylic paint.

I'm going to be showing the pieces as I complete them and since I'm really churning them out I'll probably be showing you one every day or two.

Hope you're having wonderful fall weather wherever you live. We're having drab dreary rainy weather at the moment.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

I LOVE MY PENCILS & OIL PASTELS

Many years ago I purchased some wonderful colored pencils. They are the type of pencils that are bought individually and are for serious pencil lovers as they didn't come cheap. I have no idea of what you'd have to pay for them on today's market as they are no longer in production but when I bought them I purchased only a couple at a time until I had a sizable collection. I love working with these pencils as they blend beautifully and can be layered and smudged to shade and achieve such marvelous depth. They were manufactured by FaberCastell and have DESIGN SPECTRA COLOR printed on the barrel. The wooden barrel of the pencil is black and the color of the lead is shown on the end of the pencil. They don't even look like ordinary pencils and they don't work like ordinary pencils either. Have any of you ever used these pencils?

They are the pencils I used to do the PM house in my giveaway and the pencils I used to sketch Bellamine and Sampson earlier this morning. 

As always my photography skills or lack there of and the less than spectacular camera have not captured the colors or the depth so this is not a true representation of what they can do.

I have been practicing with the oil pastels on a paper that I'm able to use water and have started taking a liking to these nasty messy sticks of color. Aside from the chunky size which makes it difficult although not impossible to do fine detail. All in all I have to admit they're starting to grow on me.

I really like the way they can be blended and watered down when working with the skin tones and shading and when working on pale colored eyes and hair.

I've decided after working with the oil pastels that they're not as awful as I thought and am going to continue working with them and when I get tired of them I'll switch over to my pencils or my paints. It's wonderful having so many options with which we can express ourselves don't you agree?

Today I'm going to do some baking to make the house smell like autumn. Nothing says fall is here like the smell of cinnamon in the air. I also have some winter squash that is calling my name.

I hope everyone is enjoying their day and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Practical Magic House Drawing Winner

Ginger has kindly offered to help me by lending me a hand in drawing the winner for my Practical Magic Blog Party giveaway. So without further ado here's Ginger.

We've made up a list of the entrants and have assigned each a number which we've written on small squares of paper and placed into the cauldron. Pretty simple idea so far.

Ginger has written a selection spell and is chanting it over the cauldron.

The slips of paper are becoming agitated and I believe I can see one starting to rise from the cauldron.

Yes!! There it is! We have a winner! The winner in the drawing for the PM pencil sketch of the house is...

Number 14 which is assigned to Celia at Adventures of the striped stockings. 

She has won this house, er...that's not right, I meant to show you this house:

Good grief, help me here Ginger. I seem to be confused. Could I be suffering a selection defect as a result of the spell you just cast? I'll give it one more try.

Now this looks like the right house. As I explained in the earlier post this is not the sketch I showed at the beginning of my Practical Magic blog party post as that one had an unfortunate mishap. As soon as Celia gets in touch with her contact information I can get her prize mailed off.

There is a new picture at the top of my side bar that I'd like to draw your attention to. If you click on the photo it will take you to Old Road Primitives where information is available for an on-line Christmas Craft Show. Please check it out. It looks like it will be a lot of fun for everyone who loves a good craft show, and who doesn't?

Since blogger decided to ignore my posting instructions this post is a bit early. As always thanks for stopping by.