"Sentinel" game fowl drawing

"Sentinel"
(Racey Mug Game Fowl)
9.5 by 13 inches
colored pencil and graphite on tan Stonehenge paper
sold (custom commission)

The background may look "simple" but there are about a dozen layers of color there!

July 12 work in progress

June 29 work in progress

These late-night photos I take are terrible! But you get the gist of it!

June 20 work in progress

Here's something new that I started recently:


not yet titled
9 by 13.5 inches
colored pencil and graphite on tan Stonehenge paper
sold, commission

Rosecomb drawing finished

"Prima Donna"
(Black Rosecomb hen)
5 x 7 inches
colored pencil and graphite on tan Stonehenge paper
sold (custom commission)

If you've been wondering, no this is not a portrait of any of my birds. I wish mine would pose like that at shows instead of taking naps! I did know this bird though. She belonged to a friend (and competitor) and always beat my birds. A memorable experience was one show where my Lemon Blue (that Lemon Blue was awesome!) female darn near beat this Black female. I took Reserve of Breed with mine if I recall correctly, and maybe that's just as well. I don't think Bob, bless him, would have taken the beating too well. ;-)

Anyway, this piece was commissioned by this bird's co-owner, Conor. (The bird is no longer alive, she died years ago.) The main goal of the project was actually to produce a kick-ass business card for Conor, with a portrait being a "maybe some day down the road" kind of thing. Well, may as well kill two birds with one stone, right? I convinced him to get the portrait done now, and that way I can make a business card out of it. Definitely the right choice, and he gets a nice framed drawing to boot!

The final piece of this project was to design a business card. I do all my own graphics stuff (cards, website, etc) but don't do much of it for other people. I generally refer those jobs elsewhere, but since this one involved my drawing, I wanted to see it all the way through. In other words, since it uses my art, I wanted full control over how it would be used. Nothing worse than having someone else bugger up my stuff, right? Here it is, and yes this is posted with permission. Conor knows his info is going on my blog. :-)


This drawing is very much in the style of the ones I did for the Standard. Oh hey, the Standard. It's printed. It's out. Lots of friends of mine have seen it. They say good things about it. I have not yet seen it, I have not yet held it in my hands, therefore I do not yet believe in its existence. I do not intend to buy one, I am feeling a bit entitled and thinking that the APA really ought to give me one. Right? [la dee da, and then I went off on a big rant about something I might get in trouble for ranting about, so I deleted it, but I'll just summarize with this parting thought: I should have been asked to proof it. Or I should have asked to be able to proof it. Hindsight, live and learn, etc. *Sigh*]

March 14 work in progress

March 12 work in progress

Since I started you out with a little teaser shot of just the head on this bird, I think I'll keep that up! You'll see the whole thing when I'm finished. :-)

March 9 work in progress

Just a little teaser pic for you tonight. Today I did the preliminary sketch for an upcoming drawing. These sketches show all the details, but are only an outline, and don't show color or shadow or roundness, etc. This goes to the client for approval, and once that's received I will transfer the image onto the good (expensive) paper and start the final drawing. This sketch was approved tonight, so I'll be starting the final drawing tomorrow if my day goes as planned.


This is a custom commissioned piece, and will be a 5x7 inch colored pencil drawing. It will also be used as the background image on a business card, which I'll design.

If you haven't noticed, Katherine Plumer Fine Art now has its very own Facebook page. I've had a personal page for quite a while, and you're certainly welcome to send a friend request (drop a line and say you read the blog on the request) but I have set up a business page if you're inclined to "like" it. It's a work in progress, and I still need to add photos. It's going to be run pretty similar to the blog... works in progress, thoughts about stuff I'm working on, etc. Just trying to stay hip, you know... There's a link in the right sidebar. Clicky clicky! :-) Actually, Random Rosecombs has one too but it doesn't have enough fans to have a unique address yet... but it's linked on the fine art FB page.

"Got Treats?"

Posted with permission, though the recipient won't see this til Christmas. The drawing is off to Colorado in the morning! :-) I am sooo happy with how this turned out!


"Got Treats?" (Joker and Kid Rock)
colored pencil and graphite on gray Stonehenge paper
10 by 10.5 inches
sold, custom commission

Here it is framed, though this isn't a particularly good photo as far as showing the accurate colors:

And for anyone who's interested, these are all the colors that went into it (plus graphite):

Of those, these were used on the chestnut pinto horse:

And these were used on the buckskin, there is hardly any difference! Almost the same color palette but in different proportions:

December 15 work in progress

Getting there! So much for the buckskin being quicker. ;-) Believe it or not there are three more colors to add, plus some final "tweaking." This is probably the last WIP pic you'll see. Next time it'll be done. I'm not sure if I'll post it before or after Christmas (I'll have to ask the person who commissioned it, since it's a gift).

December 14 work in progress

I finished the Sheltie! You'll see it here eventually. :-) I shipped it out this afternoon. Not that it has to go far, it doesn't even leave the county, but I couldn't count on having time to deliver it before Christmas.

So, the last commissioned piece to finish before Christmas is the horses. I'm cutting it close, I know... somehow Christmas kinda snuck up on me. It should be fine though. I'll order a frame tomorrow which should be ready early next week, and I'll be done with the drawing by then for sure. And then it's time to finish my Christmas shopping/baking/making stuff! I think some of my friends will be getting, uh... early January presents. ;-)

December 10 works in progress

Why am I working on this little doggie one side at a time? I don't know, that's not how it usually goes, but that's how this one wants to happen. Okay...

December 9 work in progress

I will show you the Sheltie scrim tomorrow, it's in a weird looking stopping point tonight. Yes, scrimshaw has ugly stages too. ;-) I was able to fix what I did to it, but I had to sand off about half the work I'd done. Arg. People sometimes ask me what happens if I make a mistake. I tell them mistakes are not allowed. Because if they happen, you either have to sand it down or start over, and this was a stupid error that was my fault. I used the wrong pen to draw some guide lines, and it stained. Lesson learned!

Anyway, the horses are coming along just fine and I'm enjoying this one! The paint horse is more or less finished (there will be some tweaking of shadows and final touches on the white marks) and I've just started on the buckskin. I think the buckskin will take less time to draw because there won't be as many layers of color... I think. We'll see, I could be wrong. It happens. ;-)

December 7 work in progress, and oh snap

Okay, I had a little problem with the scrimshaw today, a really really really stupid problem that's totally my fault but totally unexpected. I think I found a way to fix it, but it's going to take some time and creativity, and I'll tell you tomorrow how it goes. Crap.

On the bright side, the horse drawing is finally starting to look good! ;-) Two or three more colors to go on the face, three or four on the neck, and I need to finish the shading on the white blaze. And then draw the other horse.

December 5 works in progress

There are lots o dots that you can't see yet, because I haven't inked them!

These are obviously not all from today (ha!). Still a LONG way too go on this horse (about 5-6 more layers of color, there are some major deep shadow areas, as the one mostly-finished ear shows you) and a whole 'nother horse next to this one.





I am going to need to pull some late-nighters this coming week!

finished the chicken drawing!

"Leading Them Home"
(Columbian Wyandotte hen, mixed variety chicks)
colored pencil and graphite on warm white Stonehenge paper
© 2010
8 x 11 inches
sold

Did I already say that the iMac is back? The iMac is back. I spent most of the rainy weekend doing website work, which is TEDIOUS to the max. But I'm happy with what I'm doing, it'll look swell if I ever manage to finish.

I think we got about 1.75 inches of rain over the weekend, which is pretty impressive. Thus begins mud season! I had to wade out through the corral on Sunday and shovel out the drainage ditches that go to the creek. They were blocked with sodden masses of of grass and blackberry vines. Amazing how much it helps drainage when the ditches are clear! ;-)

October 14 work in progress

Sorry, really punchy picture tonight because I'm pretty limited with my editing capabilities right now (and late night photos always need editing!). The computer has decided that since I was about to spend a tremendous amount of time on it, completely redoing my website, that this would be a great time to have major problems. It keeps turning itself off, won't stay on more than a few minutes. Gonna have to get that fixed. *sigh* It seems like the same problem as a few years ago.

So I'm on the laptop until then, with limited photo editing software and no way to do the website.

If it ain't one thing it's another.

October 13 work in progress

Did I ever tell you that most art pieces go through an "ugly stage." Yeah, seriously, it's like the gawky teenage stage. Doesn't worry me, it'll pass. ;-)


"Leading Them Home"
8x11 inches
colored pencil and graphite on warm white Stonehenge paper
sold/commission

So I've been pondering making a few minor changes to my website, little cosmetic things, a few tweaks here and there. Well, I've actually now decided to completely redo it. Big changes on the horizon! It's going to take me a long time to do it, but I want to get it done ASAP for some publicity-related reasons. Stay tuned.

Ah, and I think I'll have a "holiday sale" as well, since there is a lot of older work that I just want to get the heck out of here. That kind of makes me wish I had an art show coming up soon, but I don't.

October 11 work in progress

Colored pencil for a change! And you thought I'd forgotten how. ;-) The colors will look much nicer when this is scanned, versus these crappy late-night photos I take.


"Leading Them Home"
8x11 inches
colored pencil and graphite on warm white Stonehenge paper
commission/sold

This is the third piece for this particular person (a client and a good friend!). Every year he commissions me to draw an image for his Christmas cards, always with a chicken. This piece does have a VERY "spring" feel to it and the scenery will be deliberately extremely idyllic. It all has meaning. :-)

November 11 work in progress: horse drawing

A side note about the leaf photos, I think I will go ahead and just post them all at once later on, after the leaf falls off the tree. This once a day thing doesn't really float my boat very well. Unfortunately, the chosen leaf is not turning a glorious red color as I had hoped, it's going the yellow and brown route. Lovely, but not as exciting. About half the leaves on that tree seem to go red, the other half go yellow. So I'll photograph a red one too. Stay tuned.

How bout a horse in the mean time.


Sorry, this is an AWFUL photograph, because I took it tonight, and it's dark. Ewwww it's not really that color.

It's pretty much done, pending a few things:
1) I need to sign it
2) It needs to "bloom." I heard you say "huh?" Wax-based colored pencils, when used at high levels of saturation, will produce a cloudy "bloom" over some areas of the drawing as the wax surfaces (that's why the black areas on the horse look kinda cloudy and dull right now). This tends to send people into crisis mode apparently. Relaaaaaxxxx. It's no big deal. People get crazy about redrawing and then applying fixative right away. Uh uh, bad idea. When you finish a colored pencil drawing, put it away for a couple days, or a week. Stick it somewhere safe, and let that baby bloom! Embrace the bloom! And then, ever so gently, wipe if off (kleenex, blending stumps, whatever). Then spray with fixative. But let the darn thing bloom and get it out of its system (so to speak), drives me nuts when people get all worked up about trying to "prevent" it.
3) This is perhaps the most important thing here in step three, my client needs to approve it before I can call it officially done. And here's where I wish all people had internet access. Alas, this means I schedule a meeting...