I know many of you have HEAT in June…at my house my furnace still comes on in the morning! I wish summer would get here, but in the meantime, here’s some wintry inspiration for those who need to cool off a bit!
New class
This came about because of the new Colored Pencil Winter Wonderland class – when I got out my Gamsol I noticed it was below 1/4 full! While that’s plenty for a few drawings, I always panic when things start looking low…and I started looking around at other colored pencil artist sites to see what solvents they like – and picked out a few to try.
And now…the Video
Spoiler alert: Gamsol was not immediately surpassed by any of these in performance, especially not by price.
Watch the video below or click to watch it on YouTube.
And now…SNOWMEN!
Sketch out a bunch of snowballs – stacking 2 seemed to be cuter than 3 to me, as well as easier. Color up the blobs with blue – I started with dry blending from powder first, then added the solutions to each snowman.
Make hats and scarves for them! Different styles, materials, textures. Have fun! And don’t forget to use the leftover pigment on the brush to make the fluffy pompoms on hats.
Then add mittens – and give them things to hold! How cute are they with their art supplies?
Supplies
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- Polychromos pencils
- Stonehenge sketchbooks (6 x 12 used here, 7×7 in class)
- You can also use a Stonehenge Drawing Paper pad, 9 x 12: Amazon – BLICK
- Cheap kids brushes from the drugstore
- Blending solvents with price comparison:
- Gamblin Gamsol $2.97 per ounce
- US Art Supply Oil Medium Odorless Thinner $3.97 per ounce
- Winsor and Newton Sansodor $3.40 per ounce
- Winsor and Newton Drying Poppy Oil $4.14per ounce
- Linseed Oil from my Lowes store (probably not the good stuff!) $.03 per ounce – the Winsor and Newton Refined Linseed Oil on Amazon is $1.73 per ounce
These snowman are soooo cute Sandy.
Love to watch the video and see the snowman came a life.
Thank you so much for sharing, stay safe and have
a wonderful day.
Just adorable Sandy!
Your snowmen are adorable !!!! And it’s so refreshing : we have a VERY EARLY heat wave in Europe. Yesterday afternoon I had over 100° on my balcony when I should have a little 75-80° normally at this time of the year. I cannot wait for the winter : It’s so much easier to fight the cold : a good jumper, some good socks and a hot chocolate and hop we go !
Sooo cute! I love your snowmen. Watching your video and how you create them is like magic to me. I am going to give it a try though, although I know I need way more practice. Using a brush for the blending solution is a great tip. I hope that will work better for me than a blending stump. I am a leftie, so I assume it is easier for me to have le light come from the left?
Great tutorial, thank you for sharing your talent!
Love the snowmen! They are so cute! Thank you for inspiring me to pull out my pencils and make some fun snow art!!!
SO ADORABLE! I love their expressions and poses. The purple hat is soooo cute 🙂
I did not know you could use blending solution with a brush! I always thought stumps or cotton balls. Thank you for this fantastic technique tip!