The end of the school year is in sight, and the struggle is real. You’re exhausted, supplies are dwindling, and your students’ attention spans are shorter than ever. Sometimes you just need a meaningful one-day lesson to fill those final days. Try some of these low-prep, high-engagement lesson ideas that will keep your students focused on learning while making the most of those last precious moments in your art room.
Keep reading for engaging one-day lesson ideas for when you are low on time and art supplies.
Portfolio Day
The end of the year is the perfect time to review the portfolios that students worked so hard on all year long. Students will select a few pieces that demonstrate the most growth. Then, students will write a brief artist statement describing their artistic progress and the choices that fueled that progress. Next, create a class gallery with one artwork per student. Arrange the selected works around the room or digitally in a slide deck. Finally, share the class’s work through a gallery walk or slideshow. Encourage students to drive the narrative with peer compliments and discussion prompts about key concepts.
Creativity Challenges
Keep students creating and making right up to the last day with Creativity Challenge lesson ideas. Foster friendly collaboration and competition with minimal consumables. Continue the fun and stack your challenges for a full Creativity Challenge Week.
Here are five exciting Creativity Challenges to add to your curriculum:
Exquisite Corpse Drawing This classic Surrealist game sparks creativity and collaboration—and a lot of laughs! Students will complete each other’s drawings to reveal a wonderfully bizarre creature.
Found Object Coloring Sheets Transform famous artworks or simple emojis into giant, collaborative coloring pages. Students then race to “color” the image using found objects from around the classroom, arranged within the lines. This activity promotes teamwork and observation skills.
Upcycled Old Papers Give abandoned artworks a second life. Students empty their drawers and folders, ripping up old work and sorting the pieces by color. Use the scraps for papermaking, individual collages, or a large, shared piece. This activity encourages resourcefulness and is perfect for low-energy days.
Photography Scavenger Hunt If you have access to electronic devices, explore photography to get students thinking about composition. Show examples of different photographic techniques and perspectives. Then, provide a list of prompts like bird’s-eye view, worm’s-eye view, forced perspective, action shot, macro shot, leading lines, rule of thirds, and symmetrical balance for students to capture.
One-Line Drawing This continuous line drawing game tests focus and control. Students draw a subject or scene without lifting their pencil from the paper. Encourage them to fill the page with a single, flowing line, capturing the essence of their subject in a unique and minimalist way.
Art-iculate Game
Try a fun, fast-paced art history review game. Reinforce art recognition and key concepts, all while encouraging teamwork. You’ll need a deck of at least 20 “artwork cards.” Print images of famous artworks onto index cards. Use the artist bios from FLEX Curriculum to build a deck of diverse artists like Frida Kahlo, Piet Mondrian, Yayoi Kusama, and many others.
Divide the class into teams. Set a timer for one minute and have the first team select an “Artist Interpreter.” This student draws a card from the top of the face-down deck. Their mission is to describe the artwork for their teammates to guess without using the artist’s name and artwork title. For example, if the card shows Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, the student may say, “It’s an evening landscape with a big, swirling sky and a small village below. It has a blue color scheme, and the sky looks hopeful.” Each artwork that the team correctly guesses within the one-minute time period is worth one point.
Once the minute ends, add a trivia twist for bonus points. For each identified artwork, ask a trivia question. For The Starry Night, ask, “What art movement did Van Gogh belong to?” Each correct answer earns an extra point. Be sure to base your trivia questions on key concepts from the curriculum.
Don’t miss these other game ideas to sneak in learning up to the last day:
As the final bell of the school year approaches, remember that you can still deliver engaging and worthwhile art experiences even when time and supplies are scarce. These one-day lessons provide opportunities for creativity, collaboration, and reflection. Finish the year strong and remind your students of all the ways they have grown as learners and creators. End the year on a high note and send them off with a sense of accomplishment and a lasting love for art!
How do you make the most of the last few days in the art room?
What are your go-to one-day activities for when supplies are running low?
To chat about one-day lesson ideas with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
Learn art promotion and colored pencil techniques with Megan Seiter
Megan Seiter is an accomplished, contemporary hyperrealist artist working in colored pencil. A winner of many prestigious awards, Megan creates beautiful floral paintings with a twist. Using the pan pastel and watercolor she draws realistic still life paintings with amazing precision and vibrancy. In the interview she shares her colored pencil techniques, art supplies and gives us valuable tips on art marketing, presentation, networking, gallery representation, and so on. You don’t want to miss this episode!
Parrot Tulips by Megan Seiter, colored pencil drawing
In this comprehensive colored pencil drawing guide you’ll learn about photography, shading, tools, art supplies, colored pencil techniques, realistic colored pencil portrait drawing, mixed media drawing and more. While I closed the comments section under each article because of spam and bots, you can email me your suggestions at nika@veronicasart.com or message on Instagram for videos and topics you want me to cover in the future.
Explore related articles in colored pencil drawing tips:
Drawing daily is essential to advancing an artist's skills. I used to struggle with the depiction of human form, drawing stick figures. It was difficult to get classical art education over 25 years ago, but it is available today in a number of atelier schools popping up throughout the country. They didn't exist back in 2001. It took me many years to "learn" how to draw, studying here and there without the backbone of a complete system that is now offered by the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York. Over the years I learned some important drawing principles that I'd like to share with you here.
HOW TO USE COLORED PENCILS FOR BEGINNERS: art supplies & techniques
If you’re new to colored pencil drawing, please learn about the basic colored pencil techniques and art supplies I mention in this video. Colored pencil portrait drawing is the second step. Master the first step by drawing simple objects from life.
In this video you learn everything you need to know about the colored pencil drawing for beginners. I cover the art supplies, major colored pencil techniques I use all the time. I also show several common mistakes artists make drawing in colored pencil and I explain how to fix these mistakes.
My art instruction book “The Colored Pencil Manual” covers the basics of colored pencil drawing. You can buy it on Amazon at a great price here: https://amzn.to/3fRpoEb
How to Color like an Artist, art coloring book gives artist’s tips and techniques to become great at shading, color choices, texture drawing and much more! https://amzn.to/2LtH0Iq
Colored pencil portrait drawing is infinite fun. There are numerous ways to be creative, capturing unique personality of people. To create beautiful portrait drawings artists study more than the human anatomy. Artists aim at painting the human soul. In this article I’d like to share my basic colored pencil techniques as well as some colored pencil portrait drawing ideas and inspiration you can use in your art.
Limit your color palette
One of drawing ideas is to start a male portrait drawing in one or two colors only. In my portrait drawing video course you’ll learn to do just that!
To see the values (or tones) on your model convert your pictures to grey scale using any software you have. I use Photoshop Elements. By removing color, you focus on values only.
Take a light grey drawing paper for your portrait drawing.
Use two colored pencils -black and white. Everything that’s dark is shaded with black colored pencil and the highlights are marked with white. By controlling your pencil pressure, you adjust the brightness or darkness of your values.
I learned this colored pencil technique up by looking at the old master figure drawings.
Image source: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337496 | | This is a drawing study done by da Vinci in early 16th century. Here you can see how he drew on toned paper in 2-3 hues only.
Follow your favorite artists on Instagram and study their drawing for composition, design, color. etc. If you just start out pick in portrait drawing, pick the reference photo with a face looking straight at you. Eliminate the head's rotation for now that complicates things.
Reserve your highlights in a colored pencil portrait drawing
When you draw on white paper, you must think of your highlights in advance. Reserve wider space for the highlights that you might need. Later you’ll shade around those highlights with very light colored pencils to have soft transitions in the light. The highest lights MUST stay free of any shading on white paper to have impact.
In this video you’ll learn the basics of color theory, color mixing and shading explained with real life examples.
Control the light, color & values in a colored pencil portrait drawing
Light
All three parameters – light, color, and values are important to understand to create realistic colored pencil drawings. Study the light direction. When the light is directional, one side of the face is much brighter than another. The shadows are strong.
When the light is soft, diffused, and not directional, it gets more challenging to see the changes in skin tones and shapes of the shadows. Although such light gives gorgeous skin tones, it’s much easier to start drawing portraits in colored pencil when you can see definite lights and shadows! In my colored pencil drawing video course, you get ideas and tips on how to pick the pictures, pose models, and photograph them in various lighting conditions. I also complete demonstrations, picking pictures that have good color, clarity, subject, and composition.
Color
Portrait study in colored pencil, 9×12 in, Veronica Winters
To understand how the color works, limit your colored pencil choices to 15-20 at the most. Study how one color (red) can have lots of variations in color tone (very light to very dark) and color temperature (warm/cool). Because we shade in layers with various pencil pressure we can use 2-3 reds to describe a variety of tones in different parts of the drawing. For instance, in this portrait I used 2 reds – light cadmium red and pink carmine, and 2 pinks – dark flash, light flash (Polychromos). I placed red in the ear, mouth, cheeks, neck, and even the hair. I adjusted my pencil pressure to get a variety of tones.
In this picture you can see how certain colors correspond to certain values on the value scale. As an artist, you learn to see these shifts in color to convert to tones. | In this art book I devote the entire chapter to color theory and how to use it in art.
This is the value scale ranging from the purest black to the purest white. Artists can see correct values in colors. They pick and layer colored pencil hues following tones seen in the picture to create contrast and volume.Every color has its value range. Light colors like Yellow can’t have a wide value range as opposed to Blue.
To get a better understanding of values, do this fun exercise every time you start a new project. Step back from your reference photo to see it from the distance. You don’t look at the details anymore. It’s like looking at objects without glasses when it gets a bit blurry. Find the strongest lights, darks and middle tones. These are abstracted shapes on the face, not the features like eyes or lips. Most students shade portraits with many colors, arriving at the image with no contrast. Begin by defining at least 3 values: highlights, deepest darks, and midtones. Leave the highlights uncolored if you draw on white paper.
If colored pencil portrait drawing is your passion, consider following these tips to improve your colored pencil portrait drawing:
Light quality on your subject
Anatomical accuracy
Paper’s smoothness
Colored Pencils’ softness
Colored Pencil Shading
Let’s look at every principle in greater detail.
1. Tips to capture the light on a model in colored pencil portrait drawing
The light quality on your subject, people in this case- is crucial to your success in colored pencil portrait drawing. Since most colored pencil drawing is done from photographs, you must become a good photographer to catch the light on a person with your camera. If you don’t take pictures and use other references instead, you still need to understand the light to create realistic colored pencil drawings.
In this picture I catch the evening light with a beautiful contour on her face and hair. I love this glowing evening light. It’s pinks, golden yellows and purples make the skin look fresh. The shadows are much softer and don’t cut into the face as much as in the afternoon light.
Study other artists and photographs to see how the light turns the form.
Don’t use flash to observe natural shadows.
Let’s look at some art examples.
Portrait of a Lady -La Bella, Titian, 1536, Pitti Palace | This portrait has soft shadows on her face. However, the background and gown are dark creating strong contrast.
Shadows:
Take pictures of people and faces at different times of the day to understand how the light changes shadows on the face. Remember, that the portrait must look exciting to you. Spend some time arranging and posing people to capture light and shadows. When you use strong contrast between light and shadow, your portrait drawing will look more realistic and three-dimensional.
“Man in a Turban,” Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) Dutch, 1632 | Here we see a strong directional light coming from left to right illuminating one side of the face.
High contrast:
To create high contrast in your colored pencil portrait drawing you need to use the Rembrandt lighting. It’s easy to set up in a small studio. All you need is a single light source, like a table lamp or a floor lamp, to create an abstract pattern of strong light and shade on a person. Set the person up against a plain background, put the light on one side of the face and shoot.
Here I used a single light source with a red filter covering the lamp to illuminate the model in a dark studio.
Vary your point of view, taking pictures:
Besides having good lighting conditions, consider your model’s personality. There is a reason why you want to draw people. Find a special angle that sharpens the character, makes him or her look attractive. Zoom in to the face and crop it on purpose with your camera. Stand up or look down, don’t just take pictures at an eye level.
2. Tips in human anatomy for colored pencil portrait drawing
This is Leonardo’s anatomical study of the head. It shows basic proportions of the face.
If your aim is to draw realistic faces, you need to catch the unique features of a person. Begin with a basic anatomy drawing of the face. These lines show you basic face proportions. Always check the face proportions and the tilt of the head that determines the line up of all features. I make light lines to place the eyes, nose, and mouth on those lines.
Colored pencil portrait drawing of eyes
I place a line at a diagonal first and then draw the eyes on that line, keeping a one-eye distance between the eyes. This way both eyes are placed on the face correctly.
I always draw the eyes first. I make a straight line to line up the eyes on it, and then strive to make the eyes of the same size and shape, so they appear identical. For that I draw equal circles first and then partially cover the circles by the eyelids. The upper eyelid has a different shape from the lower eyelid. Both eyelids don’t make a corner, like you see in the Egyptian eyes. It’s a very common mistake to draw the eyelids of the same size and shape converging in a corner. Always keep a one-eye distance between the eyes.
I draw the face on a sketch paper and then transfer the outlines either using the window light, or transfer paper. When you shade in colored pencil, the surface must be clean of any residue or excessive graphite lines. Shading over the graphite makes the color look dirty and flattens out the space. So either use a kneaded eraser to clean up the lines or the transfer paper. I tap the lines with a kneaded eraser to get rid of the extra graphite that shows through light colored pencils during shading.
Here you see the steps drawing the eyes. Using the darkest brown, I draw the eyelids and leave space for the highlight in the eye. The color of the iris is lighter at the bottom and much darker at the top because the upper eyelid always casts a shadow on it.
Stand in front of a mirror and look at the colors around your eyes. Do you see light purples, pinks or greens? Look at the area around your nose. Is it warm or cool? Most of the time the nostrils are warm. What’s the color of a shadow on the neck?
This drawing was done on light grey Stonehenge paper. Step 1: I begin by using Light Peach to shade the upper lip. Then I map out the shadows on the lips with a light touch of Pablo Carmine. Step 2: I mark the highlights on both lips with White. If I drew on white paper, I would leave these spaces free of any shading. I add very light shading to the upper lip with Pablo Carmine. Next, I shade skin tones around the mouth with Carmine, Light Peach, and Olive Green (or Prussian Green). Step 3: I add more color to give the mouth dimension using the same hues. The upper and lower lips never look the same. They differ in tone, shape, and color. Usually the upper lip is darker than the lower one, but here it’s in reverse! The texture of the lower lip is unique to this model. I add Burnt Ochre to the lower lip. With the Periwinkle, I add a touch of grey-blue on the bottom left side to create a shadow. I also shade the skin tones carefully around the mouth with soft strokes and overlapping.
Although I’m liberal with my colors, you can see that my drawing palette is limited to a few colored pencils. The trick is to use the same colors in different combinations throughout the colored pencil drawing for unity. Here I don’t blend the colors with a blender because I draw on smooth paper.
One mistake that most beginner make is shading the lips roughly. They make definite corners and sharp contours in an attempt to define the mouth. Keeping everything soft and remembering that the lower lip doesn't end in a sharp corner makes all the difference. I also pay attention to the size of the mouth in relation to the nose and the eyes. For that you can use a grid method as a beginner. I keep the grid in my mind, constantly measuring and comparing distances to make features of the right size and place.
I spray the colored pencil portrait drawing with a final fixative outside in low humidity. I usually do 3 layers of spray, allowing each layer to dry completely for half an hour.
Colored pencil portrait drawing tutorial: how to draw an eye in colored pencils on colored paper
It’s difficult to draw the entire portrait at once. So to practice, you can start drawing facial features separately to understand how light turns the form. Draw the eye, nose, lips, ear separately many times. Below you’ll find an example of me drawing the eye in colored pencil. I often use colored paper because it speeds up the process and lets me create super vibrant colored pencil drawings. A lot of greys look like blues on bright drawing paper.
Here I used Canson Colorline Fuschia drawing paper, Prismacolor white+ Cezanne colored pencils. I don’t think you should buy a specific brand of colored pencils, rather use the color chart to see and match your colored pencils to mine. White colored pencil must be very soft to give strong highlights ( I often use Prismacolor & Luminance whites). Beware that cheap colored pencils have very weak whites… These are basic colors and a few more hues may have been used in this colored pencil portrait drawing tutorial.
I took a free reference from Pixabay and cropped the portrait to the eye area.
Step 1: Transfer the image using your favorite method. I never sketch my outlines on colored or drawing paper because it needs to be very clean to retain color. I use a semi-transparent sketch paper to do my sketching and then I transfer the perfected outline onto my drawing paper. I decided to rotate my reference photo to draw it with a different direction. I map out the shape with black and place the highlights.
Step 2: I draw the pupil & iris. The pupil must be in the center of the eye and not super black. So I add some brown to it. I use radial strokes to shade the area inside the iris. The top part of the eye always has a shadow cast from the upper eye lid. If you don’t place this shadow, the eye is going to stare at you.
Step 3: I look at my reference and push contrast. I take a mix of dark green and brown to place the darkest values in the eye creases first. The eyebrow consists of flat shading in brown first. I add greens and grays over this flat shading with short, directional strokes, following the eyebrow’s rotation.
I hope that this short portrait drawing tutorial of an eye encourages you to draw on colored paper!
Colored pencil portrait drawing tutorial for advanced artists: how to draw an eye in colored pencils on pastelbord with resin
This colored pencil drawing tutorial is for advanced artists who would like to experiment with colored pencils or need to try some new colored pencil drawing ideas.
Green galactic eye, mixed media, 5×7″ | Green Galactic Eye manifests love and higher consciousness existing in all of us. In this drawing I layered a white mandala over the eye to depict the divine spirit of our universe.
Art supplies used in this colored pencil drawing tutorial:
The greatest challenge working on Ampersand pastelbord is the limited layering in colored pencil. Hard pencils work much better on this surface because the board feels like a fine sanded paper. It “eats up” soft colored pencils. The greatest advantage of working on pastelbord is its archival surface. It’s thick, durable and doesn’t require mounting before framing like any drawing paper does. I also love working on colored surfaces because colors “pop” when drawing on them. Ampersand pastelbord also comes in several neutral colors.
Step 2
Once I have the outline in place, I begin colored pencil shading of the darkest darks and highlights. My colored pencils are super sharp to keep the finest point possible. I fill in the eye watching my values (how light/dark each area is).
Step 3
I wanted to create a magical feeling in my colored pencil drawing of the eye. To achieve this, I made an overlay of a simple white mandala over the green eye. I used white transfer paper to place the design where I wanted it to be. (It would be very hard to draw such complex geometric design freehand). I reinforced faint outlines with Polychromos Cream colored pencil. The color is off-white and doesn’t “compete” with the highlight in the eye. Also, I decided to add some extra sparkle with fine glitter (next step).
Step 4
Before proceeding to the next step I use acrylic fixative to seal the surface of my drawing, even though Polychromos are water-resistant colored pencils. Resin can move the pigments and change the color of the surface. Sealing it is necessary to create a barrier. I use the Golden Mediums GAC-100 acrylic polymer. I’m sure there are plenty of other sealants out there. It’s just the one I have in my studio. It dries out very fast, so I brush it with a wide soft brush quickly, not to make streaks. It dries glossy and clear, but may look uneven if you’re not quick doing it.
It takes time and practice to learn how resin works. It’s tricky to work with it, and you should watch a bunch of videos on YouTube before getting into this. Also, the quality of resin plays a big role in the end result. Inexpensive resin products produce lots of bubbles, a smell and give headaches. They may be toxic and sticky. No matter what resin you get, I strongly suggest not to use your “first-time experiment” on your finished drawing. Seal the drawing with multiple layers of final fixative or acrylic sealant. Also prepare a cover to protect the art from dust and hair while it cures for 24 hours. I wait for the resin to cure for 24 hrs before proceeding to resin pouring. I mixed fine glitter into the resin mix and poured it over my sealed drawing. I let it rest for 24 hrs. The result is a glass-like finish with a touch of magical sparkle!
Colored pencil portrait drawing of hair with markers on white paper
If you work in colored pencil, you know how long it takes to complete one drawing. To speed up the process, many artists use watercolor pencils, neocolor crayons, or markers. If you feel open to some experimentation drawing hair or large backgrounds, using permanent markers may be your thing.
I sketch out the face using HB pencil on Strathmore drawing medium paper. This paper has a very slight texture that becomes somewhat problematic later. If you want to try out this technique, draw on Stonehenge paper or Bristol papers that are smoother and thicker.
Step 2
My pigment markers include just a few colors. Therefore I didn’t use black or brown on the hair. Instead I used a combination of sap green and red to get the darkest hue possible in the beginning. Usually, wax-based black colored pencil gives a lot of wax bloom and therefore underpainting the darks in markers is a good idea.
I also use yellow to fill in the background.
Underpainting with markers: Here you can see how crazy these colors look. Because it’s just an underpainting, I’m not worried about the fine details as I blocked in main waves of color in the hair.
Step 3
Once pigment markers are dry, I do some colored pencil shading over them. The underpainting gives me new, surprising color combinations. This is the step where I understand that smoother paper would work better with this drawing, simply because layering over the markers in colored pencil still reveals the paper’s texture, which I thought would be eliminated by now.
When I’m done filling in the hair, I blend the colored pencil with the colorless pencil blender, and create the highlights with some flyaways, using the Sakura Pen-touch marker that has a thin, sharp point.
I fill in the face in colored pencil only.
Italian girl, 9×12″ colored pencil and markers on paper
Step 4 In my final step I spray the fixative lightly, let it dry, and adjust minor things, like edges and details. A light coat of spray fixes the paper and allows me to work on areas that become too waxy and don’t accept pigment anymore.
This is one of my older colored pencil portrait drawings that illustrates colored pencil shading in steps. It shows how to layer colors in a slow progression to build up color and contrast. I positioned the model under a single light source to give me definite shadows on her face and figure.
15×20 inches, lightfast colored pencils on paper, available | “Finding the voice within” is a colored pencil drawing inspired by the healing energy and colors of the ocean that’s symbolized in a female form.
In this colored pencil drawing tutorial I use a very light grey, smooth, printmaking paper, the surface of which is similar to Stonehenge paper pad. I used the Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Luminance, Gamsol and Caran d’Ache full blender for blending.
Colored pencil portrait drawing tutorial Step1: I work on the outline of my drawing on a sketch paper, and then transfer it to my high-quality drawing paper. It’s crucial to get the anatomy right at this step. I check for mistakes by looking at my drawing in the mirror. I keep fixing the outlines until the portrait looks good to me. Next I create the underpainting in one dominant color – dark brown. I focus on shadows only to block them in with the consistency needed to develop a sense of light and shade. Step2: I introduce the second color and slightly overlap it over the first one to create softer transition into the light. Step3: I focus on shading on the face. I add warmer colors -yellows and pinks to create the middle tones. I use the same colors to shade the neck, arms and even hair. This is important to do for color unity, so that everything ties in. This is the main reason why I work from general to specific, and don’t draw one area from start to finish, ignoring the rest of the picture. Step 4: I introduce the blues and lilacs into her shirt. I shade the darkest folds first, then add the middle tones and finish up with the lights. Please see below how I approach drawing highlights on colored paper. Step5: I work on the background that complements my subject. Here I’ve experimented quite a bit. I added silver acrylic paint to paint the seahorses, so they change their color slightly, depending on the viewer’s position to the drawing. I didn’t use any Gamsol on the face because it would make the darks appear too harsh. I fixed the drawing with a final fixative for dry media, spraying it twice outside.
Background
Background is important. Never draw your subject without considering the color and value of the background because it determines contrast and edges. You must have enough color on the page to do the blending with Gamsol. Otherwise, there is not enough pigment to dissolve the colors. Be conservative in your solvent application, and never allow your solvent to run like water. Use a small brush to have a controlled application. Let the first layer dry completely.
In my drawing, I painted the seahorses with the acrylic paint after the blending. You need to have a fine-point brush. I didn’t use any water to spread the paint around, but used it for cleaning up the brush periodically, because acrylic paints dry super fast. Then I shaded the background again using the same colors with heavy pencil pressure. In my third layer I added light grays and blues to make softer transitions and to achieve an effect of “soft fuzziness”. I also shaded with grays to neutralize the brightness of the colors so that the background doesn’t “compete” with the figure.
Shading white fabric and highlights
I shaded the highlights with Prismacolor white over previously applied light colors using heavy pencil pressure.
Colored pencil blending techniques
There are two basic colored pencil blending techniques. One requires blending with a solvent (Gamsol) and another with a colorless blender that looks like a pencil. Sometimes one technique is better than the other. While the solvent dissolves the pigment and moves it around fast, making the color much smoother and darker, some colors may look too harsh after the application. The Caran d’Ache full blender blends all the colors equally, but the process is very time-consuming, especially if you work large, and requires a very heavy pencil application to achieve even blending.
In this 1-minute video I show the basics of colored pencil blending with Gamsol. You can substitute Gamsol for another solvent like Turpenoid Natural. You must have wax-based colored pencils like Prismacolor Premier or Luminance for this technique to work well. Blending with a solvent works well on dark to medium colors. I use a different technique for blending the lights, using the colorless blender – Caran d’Ache full blender.
Step-by-step colored pencil portrait drawing tutorial II
This is a variant of the previous demonstration drawing on the same light grey printmaking paper using a high-contrast photo reference.
I take pictures of a model and then draw direct from my monitor. I often add additional elements to my drawing that are not photographed. Here you see me referencing the orchids. Usually, I create colored pencil drawings as my studies with some of them becoming future oil paintings.Step 1: I focus on blocking in the shadows, using dark brown and sienna brown.Step 2: I shade the middle tones.Step3: In my experience, drawing larger is faster than drawing small. Since colored pencil is a very slow medium, we tend to draw small. But I figured that I spent more time shading the 9×12″ pieces that had less detail and more problems working small. So I increased the size of this drawing to 15″ x 22″ and it made a big difference for me. I didn’t have to force and cramp every detail in the picture, yet it looks complete.As love grows, 14×20 inches, colored pencil drawing on printmaking paper | Love is a complex feeling that begins with loving yourself. Love moves and helps us grow. Sometimes it’s hard to find love: it can be as elusive and fragile as feeling similar to these beautiful orchids.
3. Picking the right paper for colored pencil portrait drawing
Never draw on a textured paper with colored pencils! Textured surface “eats up” the colored pencils, and the colored pencil blending becomes a real nightmare. Pick the drawing paper that’s smooth to the touch, and avoid using sketch paper as your primary drawing paper. Sketch papers are too thin to layer the pigments, and are not archival to work on. There is very little burnishing needed to achieve the desired colored pencil blending effect, if you draw on a smooth surface.
The best colored pencil drawing paper
I often draw on:
Stonehenge colored paper pad
Bristol Vellum drawing paper by Koh-I-Noor
Canson Art Board Bristol Vellum
Canson Colorline sheets
Some printmaking papers that have similar properties to Stonehenge.
Many artists use mat boards because they are archival, very thick and smooth.
In general, the drawing paper has three properties that affect the quality of colored pencil drawing:
the paper’s tooth or texture
the paper’s weight or page thickness
the color
Let’s look at each property in detail.
Texture
It’s very hard to draw on the textured surface in colored pencil. Blending can be a nightmare even if you blend with a solvent. Therefore, I highly recommend drawing on smooth paper. These include the Koh-I-Noor Colored Pencil Drawing paper, Strathmore Drawing paper, Bristol smooth paper, or Stonehenge papers. If you are a beginner, go to a craft store like Michael’s and simply touch the pages of various papers to understand the difference in texture among them.
Weight
The weight of the paper affects how thick your paper is. If you use a solvent for colored pencil blending, don’t work on paper that weighs below 80 lb. It’s just too thin to withstand washes of any solvent as it crumbles. Sketch paper is too thin and shouldn’t be used for fine drawing at all.
Regular drawing paper is 80 lb., but some printmaking papers and pastel papers are over 98lb. The Bristol smooth drawing paper has the greatest smoothness and 100 lb. thickness. However, some artists find it hard to shade on it, because it doesn’t accept as many layers of color as less smooth papers do. Some artists use mat boards to draw because of their extreme thickness and velvety smoothness.
The Stonehenge paper pads are my favorite because of their thickness and the velvety surface that is almost perfectly smooth yet has enough tooth to layer more colors. They also come in various light colors.
Colored Pencil Portrait Drawing on Canson Colorline drawing paper
This colored pencil portrait was drawn on Canson Colorline paper, Clementine hue.
In this section, I’d like to share what drawing paper I use most often to create my colorful colored pencil drawings. I rarely draw on white paper because I love how colored pencils “react” to the bright surfaces and I’m able to create colorful drawings with very few colored pencils.
I used to draw on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper, using various paper colors they have (violet paper at the top left corner of the image). Their paper comes in both multi pads and large sheets. I used to draw on Violet hue a lot. I loved the paper’s color and the color boost it gave to my colored pencil drawings. What I don’t like about this paper is how much texture it has. Even the “smooth” side has too much texture for my liking. It becomes very frustrating to fill it in. A time sucker of all sorts… SO I was thrilled to stumble upon a different kind of paper also made by Canson.
Canson Colorline comes in many bright hues and at least two thicknesses I’ve been using so far. Maybe, they have more variety in paper thickness. I don’t know. What I do know is that 184lb. is a very thick paper which I love because it’s not flimsy and can withstand a lot of layering and spraying with a fixative. It has a lot less texture than the pastel paper but can still present work for some artists to fill in the grooves.
Canson Colorline dark grey, 92lb. is a much thinner paper. So I’m more careful with my choice of a fixative for it or how I layer colors. However, I think it’s a perfect surface for colored pencil drawing!! It’s smooth but not too smooth. Also this grey is a middle-toned grey. It means that it’s perfect to mark the highlights with white, mark the shadows with a dark colored pencil and then create a range of values in between the two poles.
Portrait on blue paper, color study, 9×12″ colored pencils on paper, Veronica Winters | This portrait drawing demonstration is available in my portrait drawing in colored pencil video course. I often draw on colored paper instead of using the white one. Main reason is that it takes much less time to shade everything because colored pencil drawing is a very time-consuming. My second reason is that I love to push colors to the extreme using few colored pencils. The result is always surprising even to me.
Art supplies for this demonstration:
While I used Cezanne colored pencils, I don’t endorse this brand. Rather use my basic color chart to match your colors with mine. I used Sarah Transfer paper to transfer the image. I used Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel drawing pad, 9×12, assorted colors pad. I used blue sheet of paper, smooth side. I strongly recommend to buy a range of colored papers from Canson Colorline brand instead. These are 19×25 sheets of paper that can be subdivided to many pieces to create drawings. They’re much smoother and more vibrant than the pastel paper.
This image shows the first steps of drawing on a pastel paper that has considerable texture.
Step1: Transfer the image onto your drawing paper. Don’t sketch with graphite pencil on your drawing paper because the surface must be very clean to accept colored pencils. If you have lots of pencil work on drawing paper and layer colored pencils over it, the colors look dirty and lose luminosity, especially when you work with light colored pencils. So I like sketching on my sketch paper and then transfer the outlines onto my colored paper using white transfer paper. In this image you can still see the transfer lines. After that I place the darks or shadows. Step2: I work on the division of space between light and dark using just two colored pencils. I create volume by placing shadows first. Step3: I mark the highlights with white colored pencil (Prismacolor premier). Step4: I begin to introduce color, shading the hair and eyes with deep blue hue. I also find the light color to shade light areas around white highlights.
Step5: This is the fun part. I add variations in hues by finding subtle differences in color, temperature, and tone. I always overlap colored pencils considerably. Step6: I didn’t use a solvent or blender. Rather, I used a very heavy pencil pressure to get rid of the paper’s texture. I used the same colors, shading the earrings as I used on her skin. What’s different is the pencil pressure that makes colors look much darker. Also, I outlined some of the edges in the earrings, which I didn’t do shading the skin (trying to keep it soft and smooth). I worked on the face the most making it a focal point, so everything else has a sketchy look.
To create emotional portraits in colored pencil drawings requires a bit of magic. Pick the photo reference of a person that will keep you motivated to draw him or her for many days of work. You can be attracted to certain features such as light or color, or texture. Intensify one of your favorite features to get a unique colored pencil portrait drawing. I often play with hues drawing on toned paper. I also make a big emphasis on the expression I see in the model’s eyes.
Cosmic Buddha, colored pencil drawing, 19×25 inches, drawn on Canson Colorline, fuchsia hueOmnipresent mind, colored pencil on paper, 19×25 inches, drawn on Canson Colorline, clementine hue
Step-by-step colored pencil portrait drawing tutorial: drawing on matboard
I’d like to share my thoughts behind this portrait drawing inspiration. To create this drawing I got inspired by two very different pictures. When I saw a photo of this girl, I knew I would love to draw her because of her intense gaze and beauty reminiscent of the Vermeer’s girl with the pearl earring. I wanted to create a beautiful, high-contrast portrait drawing with personality. I think Ameli’s confidence attracted me the most to draw her gaze. I was so happy when Angelika let me use her photo! Angelika Kollin is a professional photographer who shoots poetic portraits of diverse women. See her portrait photography here: https://www.instagram.com/angelikakollin/
I also love rich patterns found in woodcarvings in Asia. My trips to Japan and Thailand let me see a very different side of spirituality and creativity. I love combining mandalas as a samsara symbol in my art. I like how the floral circle in the background almost repeats itself in her headscarf. Elaborate design in the mandala complements curving shapes in her headpiece.
Black Rose, colored pencil and gold pen on matboard,15″ in private collection
Materials:
Colored mat board (warm beige hue), Faber-Castell Polychromos black, burnt umber, brown ochre, white & Prismacolor Premier white. W&N pigment marker, medium brown. Permanent marker, gold. Grumbacher final fixative for dry media.
Step 1: Most work was done in black colored pencil only. I used the Polychromos one because it’s harder and much less waxy, which gives me higher detail and no wax bloom. The idea is to draw the deepest shadows in black first. Then mark the highlights in shades of white, and touch up the drawing with two other colors where necessary in the end. While I shaded the entire face in black, I made some underpainting using the marker. I shaded the model’s hair, jacket, and mandala in flat strokes to build up darker hues fairly quickly. While nothing was quick about this drawing, this underpainting saved me some time. Step 2: I worked on the figure, shading everything in black. My pencil was very sharp to produce refined crosshatching strokes. Step 3: While I left the face unfinished, I began shading the flower in the background because its values determined how light/dark I should have shaded the face. Shading the background also lets me work on edges, making softer transitions. I made the background with less detail on purpose, so it didn’t overwhelm the viewer, taking the focus away from the model. Also, my photo of this wood carving had lots of highlights I omitted placing because of the same reason. Step 4: I analyzed the light direction. Coming from the right, the face received lots of light. I used Polychromos white to mark the highlights and to create shades of white on her shoulder and headscarf. I strengthened the strongest lights with Prismacolor Premier white afterwards. I also used a gold marker to place very few accents in the background. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to photograph gold shimmer as it reflects at different angles not seen in photography. I fix all my drawings with professional fixative spray. I love Grumbacher mat fixative for dry media. (Don’t buy Krylon brand. It gives uneven coverage and white bloom in humid climate!)
4. Using soft, professional colored pencils
You will achieve a much better result, if you draw with professional colored pencils. What makes them different is their softness, lightfastness, and durability. In general, I use 3-4 brands of colored pencils: Prismacolor Premier, Caran d’Ache Pablo and Caran d’Ache Luminance, Derwent Lightfast, Derwent Colorsoft. I also use Polychromos that are harder.
I pick the colors based on their lightfastness rating, buying them as open stock. I & II are known to be lightfast. Avoid using III & IV because they’re fugitive colors that fade off the page within very few years even when protected by the varnish. Prismacolor’s blue-violets, some reds and greens are fugitive colors. I substitute those hues with Luminance. Luminance is the most expensive brand of colored pencils out there, running at about $4 per pencil. It is the Cadillac of colored pencils in quality and softness. I also have a basic set of 18 Pablo colored pencils that are great for detailed work, but again not all of them are lightfast. Beware that many artists encounter problems with Prismacolor Premier colored pencils since they’ve relocated their manufacturing facility to Mexico. While I have never had any problems with this company, many artists claim that these pencils break easily these days.
There is no predetermined formula drawing the skin tones. I don’t use the same palette of colors from one drawing to the next. The skin tone of each person depends on his/her general skin color, the reflected light, and the color temperature. Students often feel timid about color, and try to pick them based on the tutorial’s directions, instead of studying the color by looking at a real person and paying attention to subtle shifts between warm and cool hues.
Instead of shading one area with all the colors you have, try to layer your colors slowly, mainly one at a time throughout the picture. This way you pay more attention to values and shadows as opposed to random shading all over the place without consistency.
Finally, just have fun with it! Not every drawing is a masterpiece, but every drawing brings you closer to your success. 🙂
Mixed media expressive colored pencil portrait drawing ideas
This section of the article introduces you to some experimental colored pencil drawing techniques, with the addition of some other materials. I share how I combine colored pencils with markers, resin, acetate, etc. These mixed media drawing ideas are for advanced colored pencil artists.
Colored pencil drawing and resin
Materials: Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils, Koh-I-Noor Bristol Vellum Paper, Winsor & Newton white pigment marker, Painters gold metallic marker, Grumbacher final fixative for dry media, resin, crystals, glass and glitter.
Colored pencil drawing with markers
Invisible II, 9×12″ colored pencil and markers on paper, private collection | Materials: Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Winsor & Newton pigment markers, W&N pigment marker heavy weight paper, Grumbacher final fixative for dry media.Here you see the first layer shading in markers only. Using the markers helps me cover the surface quickly, but the refinement is achieved through regular colored pencil shading over the first layer.
This W&N pigment marker heavy weight paper is designed specifically for the W&N markers. It doesn’t bleed through and its smooth surface is very good for colored pencil drawing in general. But you have to get used to it too because layering feels different than on other drawing papers. Also test different markers. These dried out too quickly.
In this drawing Invisible I I went back and forth shading in colored pencils and markers, creating the first layer with the markers and then layering colored pencils on top, blending them with the markers and layering again. I didn’t use the markers drawing the skin tones. The hair, however, have layers of markers only. I find that these markers don’t layer evenly and I have to shade with colored pencils over them a lot. The main reason for me to try layering with the markers is the speed of covering the background space.
Pay attention to the markers’ lightfastness rating. If your materials are not lightfast, they tend to fade off the page quite quickly. Various pigments have different lightfastness ratings and you may see some pigments fade much faster than the others.
The W&N heavy weight paper is much better for colored pencil drawing than their lightweight paper. The lightweight paper is just too smooth and too thin to accept the colored pencil. That’s why I don’t buy it unless you plan on drawing with the markers only. It’s great for drawing with the markers exclusively.
Colored pencil drawing with graphite pencil
The Silent One, 9×12″, drawing, private collection | Materials: Tombow graphite pencils, 4-6B, 2H, Koh-I-Noor Bristol Vellum Paper, Prismacolor Premier bronze metallic colored pencil, Grumbacher final fixative for dry media. In this drawing I shaded the figure to completion first because graphite smudges and it’s important not to smudge it over the colored pencil areas to keep the color clean. Once the figure was complete, I sprayed the drawing lightly, let it dry, and used metallic colored pencil to draw the leaf design to create the movement. The fixative prevented smudging. I sprayed it one more time once the drawing was complete. For graphite work, I usually shade the darks with soft pencils (4-6B) but switch to the hard ones to develop the skin tones (2H). The only eraser I use is the kneaded eraser. It leaves no residue and lifts out the highlights beautifully. If I need to get into tiny details and erase there, I love the Tombow Mono eraser that I order on Amazon from a store in Japan.
Colored pencil drawing on dura-lar paper
Dura-Lar is a .0005 matte and archival film that’s translucent and non-tearing. This is the acetate-like paper that’s quite transparent and therefore needs some backing to show the drawing in full. Either white or color acid-free backing is necessary to begin drawing because you can’t really see the colors unless you put something underneath your artwork. In the first image you can see how translucent it is where both white paper and brown paper show through. I didn’t use white pencil to draw the highlights, rather they show as white because of my white paper placed underneath the drawing.This is the most experimental surface I drew on. In the second image you see me layer the hair pattern drawing with Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils. Because this paper is very smooth, it basically accepts a couple of color layers, making it difficult to create subtle transitions in tones. I’ve tried to use Prismacolors with this paper before, and found it even harder to shade. However, the very effect of transparency can be explored a lot more, in my opinion. It’s possible to place different backgrounds and photographs underneath the drawn image, creating a different sense of depth and realism. In the third image at the bottom you see me layer as much color as possible. I must say that I was interested in drawing the hair more than the face.
In the last image you see the second layer of this transparent paper placed over the portrait drawing. I tried to cut this paper with a scalpel, but preferred working with small scissors cutting out the shapes. Paper cutting was a very laborious process, just like the drawing on such a smooth surface, resulting in much struggle to finish the work. I connected all three pieces of paper with the archival, double-sided tape in the corner, although other alternatives could have been explored.
As always feel free to share this post with your colored pencil fanatic!
These art instruction books are on sale on Amazon!
Art supplies:
13 ways to improve your drawing skills:
Draw daily from life, even if it’s a small sketch that looks insignificant.
Study great works of art. Yes, studying, not just looking at art. How does the artist solve a problem of the movement, composition, contrast, and color?
Embrace positive attitude and acceptance of failure as part of the learning process.
Consider Mentor’s help. (It’s worth your buck to pay a well-known, practicing artist to learn the tricks of the trade. Don’t expect those artists to guide you for free. There is a reason why they’re successful and their time and knowledge are valuable.
Be passionate and consistent working on your art.
Have fun drawing!
Choose the right school to study drawing. Follow your favorite artists and figure out where they studied or study with them. Some great art schools that give classical education are GCA, Studio Incamminati, Ani Art Academy, the Ryder Studio and many more!
Draw from plaster casts or classical sculptures at the museums. This is one of the cheapest and best ways to study the human anatomy before drawing a real person.
Study the complex subjects separately. Draw one object at a time before combining them together.
Sign up for free business newsletters /webinars written by practicing artists and crafters that will guide you how to set up and handle the art sales.
Some good art books to have in your library: Anthony Ryder, “The artist’s complete guide to figure drawing,” J.D.Hillberry “Drawing realistic textures in pencil,” Jane Jones “Classic still life painting,”
Some good business books that are worth your time are by Jack White who is an amazing marketer and a practicing artist: http://www.jackwhiteartist.com/pages/books.htm. I also recommend “Making it in the art world” by Brainard Carey. He lists some unconventional strategies he employed in his art career.
Join groups on Facebook to keep yourself motivated and to receive quality feedback. (The Atelier Movement is one of the groups for oil painters, Colored Pencil Artist League is one of many colored pencil groups).
What doesn’t work:
A fixed mindset where you believe that you can become great in a couple of lessons. There is no point in starting out on this venture, if you don’t have realistic expectations. It takes at least a year of consistent work to see permanent results.
Inconsistency or a lack of work ethic.
Trying to learn the material from someone whose artwork doesn’t represent the art style you are trying to learn.
The absence of motivation. No one will make you successful, unless you work on it!
Moonlight, 22x30in, colored pencil on art board, Veronica Winters
The 2025 chest in Eastern white pine and some mahogany scraps – ready for work.
Last week, we sent the revised edition of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” to the printer. It will be released in late June. The book has been updated throughout, including the section on building the chest. The new chest holds more tools and takes about half the time to build (sacrificing nothing in the process).
If you’ve ever thought about building one of these chests, I have good news. Alexander Brothers now offers a kit of wood for the chest in gorgeous and perfect Eastern white pine. Check out the details here, but everything is milled so you can get started. Price: $575. (Alternatively, they will sell you a bundle of rough lumber if you want to save money and do that work yourself.)
This pine is fantastic. I bought the pine for the new chest from Alexander Brothers (at full price – this boy doesn’t take discounts). They have access to clear and wide stock that we simply do not.
Eastern white pine is – hands down – the best wood for this chest. It is lightweight, strong and a joy to saw and plane. Highly recommended.
And because the internet sucks, I have to mention this: We don’t get any royalty, kickback or affiliate money from Alexander Brothers, a family-run business in Virginia. Like Alexander Brothers, all we care about is getting good material in the hands of people so they can build stuff.
<img decoding="async" src="https://www.linesandcolors.com/images/2025-05/vermeer_map_soldier_and_laughinggirl_450.jpg" alt="Officer and Laughing Girl
My apologies for the extended and unannounced hiatus. I’ve been dealing with personal issues that have kept me unable to attend to the blog. I’m fine, just overwhelmed.
Hopefully, I’m back and will be able to pick up speed as I go. Thanks for your patience.
In vibrant patchworks of woven patterns and fuzzy fiber ends, Sarah Zapata’s sculptures (previously) emerge as wall-hung tapestries, standalone pieces, and forest-like installations. Through the convergence of architectural structures, soft textiles, and myriad patterns and textures, her site-specific works examine the nature of layered identities shaped by her Peruvian heritage, queerness, her Evangelical upbringing in South Texas, and her current home in New York.
Zapata balances time-honored craft practices with contemporary applications, highlighting the significance of Indigenous Peruvian weaving, for example, as a means of communication. Symbols and patterns composed into cloth traditionally provided a means of sharing knowledge and cosmological beliefs.
Installation view of ‘Beneath the Breath of the Sun’ (2024) at ASU Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona. Commissioned by CALA Alliance
In abstract sculptures that often merge with their surroundings, Zapata incorporates unexpected and vibrant color combinations with woven fabrics and tufted textures. Resisting easy categorization, her pieces are neither functional nor purely decorative, although they play with facets of both.
Zapata consciously holds back from creating work that is too “beautiful,” inviting a remarkable, tactile exploration of relationships between craft, lineage, community, and memory.
Some of the works shown here are included in Support Structures at Sargent’s Daughters, which continues through through May 3. Find more on Zapata’s website and Instagram.
“How often they move between the planets” (2022), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, 144 x 60 inchesDetail of “How often they move between the planets”“Part of the tension (from earthen pits) I” (2024), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, and hand coiled rope, 49 x 14 x 14 inchesInstallation view of ‘To strange ground and high places,’ Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Photo by Michele Alberto Sereni“Towards and ominous time III” (2022), handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fiber, 144 x 60 inchesInstallation view of ‘To strange ground and high places,’ Galleria Poggiali, Milan. Photo by Michele Alberto SereniDetail of “Part of the tension (from earthen pits) II”
The art world’s enigma: highlights from Context Art Miami 2023
CONTEXT Art Miami takes place every December alongside the Art Miami in downtown Miami. This upscale, glitzy art fair is the 33rd Edition of Art Miami and 11th Edition of CONTEXT Art Miami. It features emerging and mid-career artists presented by more than 240 International art galleries. CONTEXT also showcases commissioned art made for the fair.
Due to some nudity in the art this full-version video is available to some audiences on YouTube: https://youtu.be/brV6c_UVo1g
Contemporary art sculpture at the Context Art Miami
Coderch and Malavia-ALIS VOLAT PROPRIIS-sculpture-CONTEXT art fair Miami 2023Coderch and Malavia-Galene-bronze sculpture-art fair Miami. Incredibly talented Spanish artists, Joan Coderch and Javier Malavia began creating art together in 2015. They create contemporary figurative realism sculptures together by modeling the pieces and casting them in bronze. Joan Coderch was born in 1959 in Castellar del Vallés, Barcelona, and he graduated from Barcelona’s Faculty of Fine Art in 1984. Javier Malavia was born in 1970 in Oñati, Guipúzcoa, and he graduated from Valencia’s San Carlos Faculty of Fine Art in 1993. Once they met, they discovered their artistic similarities, which led to their undertaking this new project that follows in the footsteps of masters of figuration such as Maillol, Rodin, Marini and Bourdelle.Coderch and Malavia-Kymo-bronze sculpture-CONTEXT ART Miami 2023Carole A. Feuerman (born 1945) is an American hyperrealist artist-sculptor. The artist is best known for her figurative art of swimmers and dancers. Feuerman is the only artist to make realistically painted outdoor sculptures and the only woman to sculpt in this style.Filippo Tincolini, Spaceman seat, marble
Contemporary painting & wall art at the Context Art Miami
Takashi Murakami context artGabriel Moreno, Epistolary relationship Nº3, 150 x 180 cm, pencil, Bic blue pen, charcoal, on paper 320 gr. with finished in gold leaf. Context Art Miami 2023Alvaro Petritoli, Art Movement Gallery, London, Context Art Miami. Ink on watercolor paper.
“Fireflies in the forest and stars in the night sky connect us with the wonders of childhood and fairytales. As creatures of mystery and magic, fireflies invite the viewer to follow their luminous trail in the delicate dance between light and dark. About stars, they define a nocturnal atmosphere where the microcosm turns into a macrocosm and vice versa. As human beings, we naturally find ourselves at the crossroads between these two dimensions. Apart from the sea and the sky, blue is the rarest color in nature. It is linked with eternity, supernatural beauty, religious transcendence, and the beyond.
I paint forests from my imagination. They are not a representation of specific geographical locations. However these places exist as a manifestation of inner spaces. In relation to stars, they define a nocturnal atmosphere wherethe microcosm turns into macrocosm and vice versa. As human beings we naturally found ourselves at the crossroad between these two dimensions. The forest as a threshold symbol into the unconscious was the conceptual starting point for these ink paintings. I’m drawn to this archetype loaded with symbolic connotations: a place of loneliness, healing, regression, entanglement, growth and self discovery.”
Shepard Fairey, exclamation, 2019, silkscreen and collageLuciano Ventrone, Occasion, oil on canvas. stefano forni gallery-context art MiamiContext art Miami 2023- blink groupFederico Uribe art-Adelson Galleries: Born in Bogota, Colombia, Federico Uribe lives and works in Miami. He studied art at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, and in 1988 left for New York to pursue a master’s degree in fine art under the supervision of Luis Camnitzer. In 1996, he abandoned his paintbrushes and began creating his sculptures out of everyday objects, whose beauty is often overlooked. Uribe constructs and weaves his sculptures in curious and unpredictable, repetitive and almost compulsive ways, yet still with reference to the history and tradition of classical art.
Uribe’s work has become prominent in the United States over the past decade, and has been collected by multiple museums, and featured in several museum exhibitions across the country. He has most recently created installations for the Hudson River Museum (NY), Mass MoCA (MA), the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art (AL), and the Montclair Art Museum (NJ). Federico Uribe currently has an exhibition at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (WI) on view through June 2024.
Federico Uribe art-Adelson Galleries
Contemporary 3-D art at the Context Art Miami
HOFA gallery, JULIAN VOSS-ANDREAE, RECLINING WOMAN, 2022. Stainless steel (316L) Weight: 230 lbs (110 kg) 26 x 57 1/8 x 21 1/4 in
Julian Voss-Andreae, a German sculptor based in Portland (Oregon, USA) produces large-scale public and private commissions often blending figurative sculpture with scientific insights into the nature of reality. Voss-Andreae’s work has been featured in print and broadcast media worldwide and videos of his sculpture have gone viral with tens of millions of views. Prior to his art career, Julian Voss-Andreae studied quantum physics and philosophy at the Universities of Berlin, Edinburgh and Vienna and did his graduate research in the lab of 2022 Physics Nobel Prize laureate Anton Zeilinger, participating in a seminal experiment in foundational quantum physics. His expertise in diverse fields of science and a deep passion for the mysteries of the world have been a continual source of inspiration for his work.
Ai Weiwei-context art miami 2023BREAKFAST: Brooklyn, Est. 2009, Flashbacks, Blue Lines, Edition 1/8, 2023, Flip-discs, software, camera, computer, 38 x 38 in (96 x 96 cm) “Flashbacks” is the latest series from the artist BREAKFAST, which explores the fusion of art and memory. This interactive artwork records a brief clip of each individual who interacts with it, subsequently replaying a selection of these clips from the artwork’s memory. The piece is constructed using Flip-Discs, a medium BREAKFAST has been perfecting since 2012. Each disc is intricately flipped using electromagnets.
BREAKFAST is celebrated for their digitally-driven kinetic sculpture. At the core of their work is a dedication to crafting advanced artworks that harmoniously blend software and hardware. These creations not only provide interactive experiences that transcend physical boundaries but also convey the poignant narratives of our dynamically evolving world.
Patrick Hughes: (British, b. 1939) Patrick Hughes’ first solo show was in 1961 in Mayfair, London. The catalogue introduction was by the critic David Sylvester. He has since held one-person exhibitions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York, and in France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland, one hundred and fifty-four so far. Patrick made his first reverse perspective, or reverspective, relief painting in 1964 and has refined his technique since. These artworks are constructed of wooden pyramids in perspective but the wrong way round, with the furthest point of the space represented being closest to the viewer. The result is an optical illusion. As the viewer looks and moves near the painting it seems to change seamlessly, giving an illusion of movement in three dimensions. Patrick Hughes received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of London in 2014 for his contribution to the study of the psychology of perception. Hughes wrote a book titled “Paradoxymoron” that gives insight into his thought process and ideas. His 3D art is in many private and public collections including art museums internationally. Miss Bugs, Algorithm sunny day, context art Miami 2023
Editor’s Note: Philippe Lafargue, along with Michele Pietryka-Pagán and Don Williams, are the folks we have to thank for “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry,” which we first published in 2013, and “With All Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture,” which we first published in 2017.
Those editions are now sold out. However, the new deluxe edition of “With All Precision Possible” is now available, and we plan to offer a deluxe edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” soon.
Philippe, Michele and Don are also working on more volumes of Roubo, with a focus on interior carpentry, garden carpentry and carriages.
Philippe Lafargue was born in the southwest region of France, in the Basque country, in a town called Biarritz.
“It’s called the little California of France,” Philippe says. “It resembles the California coast because of the cliffs, beachgoers and surfing. The weather is pretty mild all year round, and you have mountains in the background. I was lucky to be born there and raised there. I had access to the natural beauty of the environment, which was very nurturing.”
Philippe lived with his parents, grandparents and older brother in a small, one-floor house with a basement.
“I would find refuge in the basement because we were crowded in the house,” he says. “I remember the winter months when I sheltered there. The furnace was there so it was warm and I could see the rain falling but I was protected.”
In the basement was an old workbench, anchored to the wall. Philippe worked on projects on that bench, imprecise but creative work that he loved. He also spent a lot of time at his uncle’s farm.
At times, Philippe found it difficult to feel motivated in school outside of the more artistic classes. He loved hands-on classes that inspired new ways of looking at things and doing things. He connected with a teacher at school who helped him get started in airplane model making.
Early on, Philippe knew he wanted to be a cabinetmaker.
“I was fascinated with the work of a cabinetmaker,” he says. “I wanted to be a true cabinetmaker, making case furniture. I don’t know where this came from.”
He wonders if he was, in part, influenced by all the furniture, made by a local cabinetmaker, in his parents’ house.
“You could buy what you could afford at the time, so it’s not very attractive,” he says. “But it’s very well done.”
As a teen, he was set to study cabinetmaking at school, theory and practice. But three months before the course was slated to begin, academic offerings shifted regionally. Suddenly, cabinetmaking wasn’t available based on where Philippe lived, and none of the other options offered to him interested him.
“I told the staff of the school that I didn’t see cabinetmaking there so I wasn’t interested,” he said. “I started looking for an apprenticeship.”
While looking, Philippe was offered an opportunity to attend a school two hours away from his hometown.
“Life is about opportunities,” he says, “but it’s also not being afraid to take the train when it’s going full steam.”
Becoming a Cabinetmaker
Before being accepted into the school, Philippe had to complete a series of tasks and projects. Philippe wonderfully shares that experience in an essay in “With All Precision Possible.”
In short, that summer he found a cabinetmaker who agreed to take him under his wing. In addition to helping the cabinetmaker with odd jobs, he worked through his tasks and projects, the cabinetmaker serving as mentor.
For his first task, Philippe dressed up the face and edges of rough lumber, making it perfectly equal in thickness and length, with hand tools only. Next his mentor taught him how to cut dovetails and he built a jewelry box and bread basket out of mahogany and cherry, using a set of provided blueprints for reference. He also learned how to sharpen chisels and hand plane blades.
This, from his essay:
That summer was an eye-opener in many respects and it cemented my desire to work with wood in some capacity. When fall arrived, I enrolled in my new school as a cabinetmaker. The school was training young fellows like me to be ready to enter the workforce quickly and thus the training was more focused on knowledge and use of equipment than on hand skills. After a summer of working with my hands, I balked. Two weeks into the school year I was certain that this was not the path I was seeking. I asked for an audience with the school director and shared him my dilemma. I told him I wanted to work with my hands and chairmaking would work better for me. I asked to be transferred and bid farewell to cabinetmaking. It is amazing what you can do when you are very motivated and stubborn.
I began my education in chairmaking the following week and while machinery was part of the training, there were many parts of a chair that could only be accomplished by hand, and that suited me just fine. So for the next two years, I learned the art of chairmaking, “industrial style,” which also included making beds and end/pier tables. There was a pretty straightforward approach to accomplishing such tasks. Now I was able to read a set of blueprints and from it, trace all the required contours and profiles used to cut out the necessary chair parts from the lumber. Thinking back, I am still amazed that in that class, all of us could produce an armchair in 24 hours, ready for finishing.
At the end of two years I had a diploma in my pocket and some experience under my belt. Now I could return to my mentor’s workshop and turn on and use all the power tools to my heart’s content, something I had earned and did proudly. I had a great summer in the little workshop that year.
During that summer, a friend told him about the esteemed École Boulle in Paris, which has offered higher education in applied arts and artistic crafts, including cabinetmaking, marquetry and restoration work, since 1886. To enroll, Philippe first had to pass a two-day exam, which included creating a full-size set of technical drawings with accurate dimensions of a Louis XV-style chair. He was accepted.
“It was another world,” Philippe says. “You’re learning about a lot of things, all around.”
After two years at École Boulle, he worked out a deal with the director. He would come back a third year, tuition free, and help fabricate everything that came out of the design workshop.
“That was very cool because they were doing some very interesting stuff, combining not only wood but metal and plastic,” he says.
Now he was firmly planted in hands-on learning and he loved it. But the dream situation was short-lived.
Mobilier National
A couple of weeks into his third year at École Boulle, a teacher told him about chairmaking job openings at Mobilier National, that manages the furniture of the French State, such as the furnishing of ministries and embassies, its storage, its restorations, and its design, notably with the Research and Creation Workshop. It was an opportunity Philippe couldn’t pass up. So he and a friend decided to apply. But first, they had to pass an exam.
When they arrived, they were given an armchair and a stack of wood. On day one, they were tasked with drawing the chair to scale. On day two, they were tasked with using their own drawings to each build an armchair in 24 hours. They both were hired.
Philippe worked there for three years.
“It’s like the history of France in all kinds of objects,” he says. “It was incredible. I saw all the campaign traveling furniture of the Napoleon War.”
Here, for example, Philippe worked on chairs stamped by famous chairmakers of the 18th century. The “users,” often high-ranking government officials, didn’t want reproductions. They wanted original pieces, signed and perfectly restored. It was all cyclical, too. For example, a canopy bed might be used by the president of France while elected for seven years and then returned to be left in storage.
Philippe questioned the restoration work at times, ripping off nails, redoing this, fixing that.
“But there’s so much, that you don’t even consider when there will never be enough one day,” he says. “That’s the problem. You value it differently.”
After three years, Philippe realized the job came to him too young. He could envision himself as head of the section in which he worked, but he wanted more out of life.
“If you stay in a job like that young, you are going to lose everything you have to offer,” he says. “There is no room to express yourself. There’s no room to grow. It’s very limited.”
Philippe went back to South France. He felt boxed in. In France, work is quite compartmentalized and segmented, he says, to the point of being rigid. He knew if he stayed that trying anything new would be complicated.
“So in 1987, I took my bag and went to the U.S.,” he says.
An Internship at the Smithsonian
“In the U.S., I realized quickly that first I had to learn English,” he says. “And I had to think out of the box because I could not just be a chairmaker. If you’re going to be a chairmaker in the U.S., you’re only going to be a chairmaker if you make things that are exceptional. You’re going to find a clientele that wants your stuff and that’s it, but that’s going to be rare.”
Eventually he landed an interview at the Smithsonian Museum’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory (now called the Museum Conservation Institute). The job – the museum’s first wooden objects intern. At the time, Don Williams worked in the lab and Mark Williams was head of the lab.
“I remember the interview in the meeting room,” Philippe says. “I was at the end of the table. I was shaking like a leaf. I knew 200 words of English. I had a little portfolio of photographs. And all these heads of all these sections were bombarding me with questions. It was freaking me out.”
He got the internship.
In his first week, he ended up in New Orleans at a convention for conservators from around the world. His eyes were opened to how other countries view the roles of conservator, restorer and curator. In the U.S., he says, you respect the stain as much as you respect a brand-new piece.
“You respect the history because everything is telling you something,” he says. “We’re just only passing information. We are not here to change information. That’s the big difference. You restore to have something look good. In the U.S., you encapsulate this moment and pass it along. And you remember that the best is always the enemy of the good.”
One day at the Smithsonian he saw someone had left three volumes of Roubo on his desk. Don and Mark asked Philippe if he could translate them.
“I said no. I won’t. It’s impossible,” Philippe says. “I didn’t know enough English at the time and I didn’t think I would have been able to manage that at all.”
While protesting, Philippe opened up one of the volumes and found a plate that shocked him. It was an illustration of a workshop and it looked identical to his workshop in Paris.
“It was and still is exactly the same,” he says. “It’s a row of workbenches. Windows on the left, big windows, floor to ceiling. The same spacing between each bench, the same lineup. On the right you have space to have small sawhorses or your glue pot. And you have an equipment room on the other side. When I saw these pictures, I couldn’t believe it. We haven’t moved from that yet. To me, it was unbelievable.”
In the beginning, Philippe worked closely with Mark, who hired and supervised him. When Don took over as head of the lab, he and Philippe worked well together, connecting over a shared taste in music.
No longer stuck in the role of chairmaker, Philippe decided to spread his wings even more.
Tryon Palace
In 1990, Philippe found a new opportunity as a conservator at Tryon Palace in New Bern, North Carolina. He enjoyed this work for a while, but eventually realized he was missing something.
“I was lacking communication with what I was doing because those objects, they never talk back to you,” he says. “It was a bit too quiet.”
He switched gears to technical services manager, taking care of the well-being of its collections and buildings and its day-to-day operations. He worked up to the role of deputy director, which involved more finance work and human resources, and then helped build the N.C. History Center. In 2014, he was named executive director, a role he had been filling since the 2012 death of the previous director.
During this time, Philippe realized that all of his education, hands-on experiences and exposures to new opportunities had prepared him well for such new and varied work.
“Suddenly, you have all these resources that help you find a solution,” he says. “It’s like when you are building case furniture and you have something that doesn’t work, you find a solution. There is something, a mechanism in place that – click – it goes in. If you’re in a field that’s not quite yours, you use your mechanical skills to resolve stuff. It’s in place. You have learned how to make it work. You pull on your resources. I was glad to have my training because I can visualize things in three dimensions. I can see things very quickly.”
Philippe has found his professional journey gratifying.
“I was able to start from a wooden block but it’s not a block anymore,” he says. “It becomes whatever you want it to become. But you still have this hands-on quick understanding and then up, up, up and you work with people. It just happened to be that way. Primarily, I was able to open my mind. And it’s not always easy. But you make a mistake and you start again.”
Working on Roubo
Over the years, Philippe and Don kept in touch, somewhat sporadically. One weekend, Don called Philippe and told him he had started the translation of Roubo’s books. Don once again asked Philippe for help. This time, Philippe agreed.
Don asked immediately if he’d like to be named as an author.
“I said, Don, I don’t know. Send me stuff. If you like what I do, that’s fine with me. If you don’t like what I do, don’t put me on. So that’s the way it ended up being,” Philippe says. “I had no expectations. I was just doing it to help and for the fun of reading historical documents.”
They found a rhythm. Don and Michele completed their work, then sent everything to Philippe to look at it from the perspective of someone whose native language was French and who had a breadth of knowledge in French historical craftsmanship.
The first book took a while. Philippe worked on it every night after work, for two to three hours. The second one was a lot faster – it took Philippe about six months to complete.
After the first edition of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” was printed, Philippe joined Don at Woodworking in America 2013 in Cincinnati for a book signing.
“I thought I was on another planet,” Philippe says. “I said, ‘What the heck is going on?’ It’s one of those feelings like you don’t know where you’ve landed. It was funny. Don gave a lecture. I bumped into people like Roy Underhill. I ended up staying with Megan [Fitzpatrick] in her house. She was trying to finish her house. Is she still? I’m sure she is, with all the work she puts in at Lost Art Press. Anyway, Don and I got to see all the beautiful furniture she’s made. That was a lot of fun. It was all very strange but it was one of those moments in life that stays always engraved. You have these beautiful vignettes in life where you cross paths with people.”
Philippe is now back in France, in Saint Nazaire, a small town of about 2,500 people. He’s 20 minutes away from Spain, surrounded by mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.
He’s working with Michele and Don on new Roubo translations.
“That team is very relaxed,” he says. “This is the type of project you don’t get ready for. You can’t work ahead of time. You just wait for it to fall in your lap and then you go.”
‘Life is to Discover Yourself’
Having spent many years living and working in France, and many years living and working in the U.S., Philippe finds the differences quite interesting.
“In the U.S., there’s this quest for success and not being afraid of it,” he says. “There is a lot more freedom available where you pursue things or dream of things.”
It’s an attitude of, Why not? Let’s try, he says.
“What I did in the U.S. professionally is impossible to do in France. You could do it in France, but only if you had the right diplomas. In the U.S., I was not judged by my diploma. I was judged by my character, by my work ethics, by all these things that we should be judged on.”
These days, Philippe had rediscovered the joy of model making (with a nod to his childhood) and he’s tapping into more creative work, creating folk art. He works in a room that is a bit less than 10 square meters, with a tabletop as a workbench. He’s content.
“I’m very curious by nature,” he says.
For example, when making a model sailboat, he also made the sail.
“I pulled out a sewing machine and I sewed the sail because the process was a mystery to me,” he says. “I’m attracted to all those things that are new to me. I have a desire to surprise myself and discover other matter.”
He’s also being mindful about sharing what he’s learned over the years.
“That is also something that is more common in the U.S. than here,” he says. “Here, people retire and are finished. A lot is lost, really. The mentality is really different. In the U.S., when I was working in the museum, we had a lot of volunteers. They don’t want to just stop and do nothing. They come and share their stuff, they participate in life. I don’t know. It’s another way of looking at things. I’m not saying one way is better than the other, but for me, I was glad to be exposed to that way of looking at things because it made me bigger, bigger in looking at things and accepting things and opening up my mind. That’s what I like.”
Living life this way has required him to make some hard choices, he says.
“I’ve learned when you go down river, it’s always easier to go with the flow,” he says. “There’s always something you’re going to be able to catch on the side of the river to make a pause. When you try to go against the current, that’s where you’re drowning and you’re missing all the opportunities.
“You can fight all the time but life is going to take you where it’s going to take you. It’s up for you to go for it, to be quick to accept and change. And you are always part of it. That’s the beauty of it. No matter what happened, you are part of it – 50 percent is your choice. The rest is to accept that you have decided to do this or not. That’s the difficult part. But life is short. Life is to be lived. Life is to discover yourself.”
Thomas Paquette has long been one of my favorite contemporary painters. Since I discovered his work and wrote about him back in 2007, I’ve featured him on Lines and Colors five additional times (see links below); this post makes seven overall.
Paquette has a unique style I find particularly appealing. On one level, his work appears naturalistic, beautifully composed scenes of woodlands, lakes and roadways and wilderness areas, that seem to sparkle and glow with color. On closer inspection, you can see that he is accomplishing this with ingenious juxtapositions of colors, often complimentary, at the edges of forms. These accentuate the forms, send the colors vibrating and give everything a scintillating glow. Somehow, Paquette manages to corral these elements into harmonious compositions filled with brilliant light and deep shadow.
Paquette works both at a large scale in oil, and at an intimate scale in gouache.
Both will be on display in an upcoming show titled Haven at the new location of the Gross McCleaf Gallery, which has recently relocated from Center City to the Manayunk section of Philadelphia.
The show opens this Saturday, May 3rd, 2025, with a reception from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. I have long considered the Gross McCleaf to be the most prestigious, and certainly most interesting, gallery in the city.
Paquette has also just released a new book reproducing his recent small gouache paintings, titled The Intimate Landscape. I have Paquette’s earlier book titled Gouaches (which is still available), and as a gouache painter myself, I have enjoyed it many times over. I’m very much looking forward to the new one.
If you like the sample images above (all of which were drawn from the gallery’s preview of the show), I can’t recommend the show (and the books) highly enough.
During a trip to Lagos in 2015, Karl Ohiri noticed something alarming. The British-Nigerian artist observed how long-running photography studios in the city were destroying their archives—sometimes incidentally, sometimes purposely—as they shuttered or moved out of the city into quieter village settings. And as a generation of photographers shifted to digital methods, film began to literally disappear.
Ohiri was moved to remedy this phenomenon, so he struck up relationships with local photographers and began acquiring endangered negatives “in an attempt to ensure that this precious cultural heritage was not lost over time,” he says in a statement. The Lagos Studio Archives project was born.
“The initiative’s main aims are to collect, preserve, and present the imagery of a generation of photographers that captured the style, humour, and aspirations of everyday Lagosians,” a statement says. Its mission revolves around spotlighting otherwise hidden narratives in one of Africa’s biggest hubs, “whilst further expanding dialogues around West African photography, culture, and the legacies of the diaspora.”
Ohiri, along with his partner, Finnish-British artist Riikka Kassinen, conceive of Lagos Studio Archives as a means of preserving and showcasing the wealth of history, culture, style, and daily life in Nigeria’s former capital. Formally organized in 2016, the archive has developed and exhibited images internationally at venues like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and South London Gallery
“The project was initiated out of a growing concern that on a long enough timeline, a void would be created where large sections of Lagosian history would be lost and unable to be retrieved,” Ohiri and Kassinen say. “This vacuum could lead to gaps in representation within mainstream Nigerian culture that could have serious repercussions for present and future generations of Nigerians trying to gain a deeper understanding of their heritage and culture.”
To date, the archive houses negatives saved from more than twenty studios, consisting of thousands of images. “Through conversations with photographers from the analogue era, the project has engaged in dialogues that explore the importance of preserving photographic archives as an integral part of shaping collective identity,” the artists say.
Anonymous, “Untitled, Lagos” from the series ‘Archive of Becoming’ (c. 1990s)
Currently based in Helsinki, Ohiri and Kassinen’s individual practices explore relationships between lived experiences within contemporary society and socially engaged dialogues around heritage and culture. As the pair develop images in the collection, distinct series and themes organically emerge.
The color images shown here are part of an initiative titled Archive of Becoming, which focuses on deteriorated negatives, primarily of studio portraits. As a result of humidity, mold, heat, and other elements, the photos develop with psychedelic colors, dissolved emulsion, and blank areas.
Karl Ohiri / Riikka Kassinen, “John Abe
and Funmilayo Abe, Alagbado, Lagos” (2024)
“By resurrecting these images from negatives and displaying them in their new context, the works speak of the sad state of some of the negatives,” the duo says. “However, it also talks about a certain beauty that can be found in decay that expresses the passing of time and the unpredictable life of images.”
Another body of work focuses on a husband-and-wife team who ran Abi Morocco Photos, which operated between the 1970s and 2006. The studio captured a wide array of fashionable portraits in black-and-white that celebrate myriad nearly-lost visual narratives of Lagos around the turn of the 21st century.
Ohiri and Kassinen describe the archive as an intersection between an artist-run project and a social entity, centered around the “idea of collective responsibility in preserving heritage and culture as a form of activism that starts with the individual.” Explore much more on Instagram, where you can follow updates about exhibitions, newly developed photos, and a forthcoming book focused on the work of Abi Morocco Photos. (via WePresent)
