Siege - Day 75

Saturday!  And pretty weather.

Oh, and here finally is the color version of that birthday certificate that took all those days.  Now in a gold frame, trucking its way westward toward the birthday party.  Be safe!

copyright Clare Floyd DeVries

Joy of New Pencils

Is there anything nicer than a set of crisply pointed brand new colored pencils?*

I just received a box of art supplies from Blick (the great Chicago art supply stores) with a stack of empty sketchbooks and the coolest box of Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils.  These draw like any colored pencil, but add water and line turns into ink wash.  I envision many hours of fun.  Plus they come in the most cunning little wooden box, with a sliding lid that has glossy varnish and a beautifully dished-out recessed finger pull.

I could spend hours just sliding the lid open and shut, daydreaming of Beaux Arts ink wash renderings.

Public domain image from Wikipedia

* Possibly the big-kid box of 64 new Crayola crayons.  The colors!  The colors!

Fun with Colored Pencils

I can't reveal the final design yet (ticket buyers have to have perks, right?) , but I've just finished coloring my elevation drawing for In the Other Room: the Vibrator Play.  Coloring is fun, whatever your age, and I kinda like the way this show is looking.  After a few more minutes of lunch-munching and typing, I'm off to the copy place, then to meet the director... to see what he thinks of this.

I have to put in a good word for ink and colored pencil as rendering media:  ink lines give crisp definition, detail, and copy well, while colored pencil is fast, colorful - bold or subtle as desired - and wonderfully erasable when you goof.  More forgiving than theater-traditional gouche or watercolor!

Here's a different ink/pencil rendering for a kids' Easter show at Casa Manana a few years back - a fast-fast-fast sketch.  Try it yourself.

Like crayons, the bigger the box of colors, the more fun!