Prismacolor Pencils

2018 Christmas Card

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

My Christmas Cards are mailed.  Enough time has passed that most of the cards should have reached their destinations.  Now, I can share the cards on my blog.

This year I drew ornaments on 3.5″ square tiles.  I selected the high quality tiles, because I wanted to color on the tiles.  I keep the color to a minimum because I wanted the ornaments to look delicate like glass Christmas ornaments.  Below are a few of the tiles.  All of the tiles are located on Drawing page.

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I designed the card in CorelDraw.  I converted the picture below to an outline drawing to use as a background on the card.

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I created an area on the card to put the tile.   I have been placing the same symbol with my name on all the back of all my cards since 2004.

2018 Christmas Card Outside

Outside

2018 Christmas Card Inside

Inside

The folded card measures 5.25″ square.  I embossed several stems on the front of the card, and attached the tiles to the cards with photo corners.  I wanted the recipient to be able to remove the tile without damaging the tile.   Below is one of the finished cards.

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Art of Concentration: Day 12

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Another spiral!  Why?  Because figuring things out, what works and doesn’t work is fun.  I have fun drawing spirals and making something of them.

Below is today’s line drawing:

AofC another spiral

I learned that using two colors with at line drawing was impossible.  Three colors would be difficult, not impossible, but fun. The first approach to coloring the line drawing was to color the individual square (or four point stars) with a different set of colors, but still following the rules.

The Art of Concentration rules are:

  1. Draw lines on a page.  Straight line, squiggly lines, circles, squares, triangles, stars, it does not matter.
  2. Color every other section.  Start anywhere.  Use any color.  Typical you will only have a black pen, or a pencil, those are fine.
  3. If you desire, use multiple colors.  Sections of the same color can not touch.

AocC another spiral color 2

You probably did not notice, but I tried to use a pattern for the colors.  Here is the pattern I choose for the second color drawing.  It is easier to show you than explain.

AofC color example one

The vertical and horizontal pattern was: pink, blue, and white.  Picking a pattern, made it easier to color without having the same color sections touching.

The results:

AocC another spiral color 1

With the hand drawing, I used the four colors: pink, blue, purple and gray, and changed to a darker color as it got closer to the center.

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Around the Spiral

You can download a PDF version of the line drawing from the Coloring Page, or click here.

Art of Concentration: Day 10

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For today’s Art of Concentration drawing I decided to go with a more traditional approach.  By traditional approach I mean;  it was the way I normally drew and colored these type of drawings.  They contained either straight lines, squiggly lines, or both.

The Art of Concentration rules are:

  1. Draw lines on a page.  Straight line, squiggly lines, circles, squares, triangles, stars, it does not matter.
  2. Color every other section.  Start anywhere.  Use any color.  Typical you will only have a black pen, or a pencil, those are fine.
  3. If you desire, use multiple colors.  Sections of the same color can not touch.

The line drawing:

AofC traditional

In a meeting, a classroom, or a waiting room, you will typical only have a pen with one color – below is today’s line drawing colored in black and white.

AofC traditional color 1

You may be part of the special group that has many different colors pens on hand.  The largest box of Crayola Crayon contains 152 different colors.  The largest tin of Prismacolor pencils contains 150 different colors.  And, it is very easy to fine a set of 100 different color gel pens.  Sometimes, I have the urge to use has many different colors a possible in my drawings, like the drawing below.

AofC traditional color 2

I messed up today’s hand drawing, then I messed it up again, and then I messed it up a third time.  I should have been simple enough, but I was listening to water draining and was wondering why it was so loud.  I gave up and turned the tile over and started again.  Since today’s theme was traditional, I decided I would do a sample of my normal typical drawing.

Notice the curvy lines.  There are several lines that look like the cursive letter “L”.  Drawing the cursive letter “L” is a good pattern to repeat on the page.  The letter “S” and the music symbol Treble clef are also good to use.  Just keep the line flowing from edge to edge.

What I learned today with my mess up, coloring a section with a marker and going over it with a white Sakura gel pens, gave it a nice color.

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Sea of Algae

PDF version of the line drawing created in Corel Draw is available for download on the Coloring Page, or click here.

Art of Concentration: Day 5

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Take a look at the Circle and Swirl line drawing shown below.  This drawing presents an optical illusion.  Why?  The circles appear to be ovals.  They are circles which are drawn off center from each other that gives the illusion.

AofC circle swirl 2

The Art of Concentration rules are:

  1. Draw lines on a page.  Circles, squares, squiggly lines, it does not matter.
  2. Color every other section.  Start anywhere.  Use any color.
  3. If you desire, use multiple colors.  Sections of the same color can not touch.

AofC circle swirl 2 color alt1

I normally do not color in the order as shown in a rainbow.  I normally color using the color wheel.   I will pick a color. Sometimes I go around the color wheel, at other times I will go across the color wheel (complementary colors).  Sometimes my colors are in harmony and sometimes they are contrasting.

On the Circle and Swirl line drawing I used colors that were next to each other on the color wheel.  Except for black.  Black is not a color, black lacks light and color.

AofC circle swirl 2 color alt2

With this hand drawing, I did not break rule 3.  None of the same color sections are touching.  It was done on a Studio Series Artist Tile using Sakura Gel Pens.  Colored with Prismacolor pencils.

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Color Goes Round

Click here to download a PDF copy of today’s Circles and Swirl.  It is also available on the Coloring Page.

The Art of Concentration: Day 2

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

Today, I selected an easier design (The Spiral) for my “Art of Concentration” project.  The rules for designing and coloring the drawing is simple:

The rules are:

  1. Draw black lines on a page.  Circles, squares, squiggly lines, it does not matter.
  2. Color every other section.
  3. If you desire, use multiple colors.  Sections of the same color can not touch.

Since the outline was simple, I decided to use some shading.

Created and colored by hand using Pigma Micron pen and Prismacolor pencils:

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The Swirl

The outline created on the computer using Corel Draw:

AofC spiral

The drawing colored in Corel Draw.  I did not use Microsoft Paint today to color the drawing, because I like the gradient done in Corel Draw.

color of spiral

For a copy today drawing, The Spiral, click here.  You may also for this and other drawings on the Coloring Page.