Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and drawing……

Yes, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m wearing green of course.  And shortly I will put my favorite meal in the oven….roasted corned beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and of course cabbage.  It was my requested favorite meal throughout my childhood, whatever the event or celebration.  My hubby…..not so much.  He grimaces even as it cooks.  He prays it shrinks up and disappears in the pan so there won’t be any left overs.  Not me…..I’m happy to see it show up in a Rueben sandwich, or hash in the upcoming days.  

I’m drawing again. Yes, took a slight detour from the black and white of Zentangle land and decided to incorporate some color.  Yes, I’m still doing them daily like a dog on a bone, but I pulled out my colored pencils…..Koh-I-Noor woodless and Faber Castell Polychromos and got to work.   I love them both, but wish the woodless came in larger sets as they are my favorites.

A friend pointed out a while ago that I’m a seasonal colorist.  About this time each year I go ‘brights’….I mean clothes, painting, quilting, food……whatever I’m working on and whatever offsets the dull gray winter colors.  It’s not that I don’t love the cool purple gray shadows on the show, it’s just I’ve had enough about mid-March.  So it is with my colors today. 

But what I discovered (big surprise on Pinterest) was a nifty trick to add some depth or saturation to my colored pencil work.  I love the ease of use colored pencils give but sometimes I want richer, almost oil like effects but I can’t get them with color pencils.  I want lush sunlight, somewhere between watercolors and oils.  By adding a delicate wash of baby oil on top of the pencils, they blend better.  You don’t see the colored pencil marks as much.  Some are more dramatic than others, but I think you’ll see the difference:

Before and after (yes, stacked up shamrocks!)

Before and after

Before and after

Before and after

And it gives off the most interesting shade when held backwards to the sunlight.  And not to be forgotten, the baby oil smells nice.