Interview with Jen: Part 1
I’m very excited to share this special interview with Jen this week! Jen is an amazing artist and she has drawn an exquisite portrait of both Edward and Bella (Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart). I’ve had the opportunity to ask Jen some specific questions about her drawings AND get some tips for professional coloring when stamping.
So, without further adieu, here is my contribution for this week’s Twilight Tuesday Challenge #37: Romance!
How long have you been drawing?
Honestly, I can’t remember exactly what age I started drawing but I do know it was in elementary school. I specifically remember my 6th grade art teacher being a great and helpful influence on me. If I say 5th grade that would be 22 years, man that makes me feel old.
Did you pursue an art education?
Sort of. I didn’t go to a traditional art school but I do have a degree in art education and about 2/3 of that degree was made up of art related courses.
What attracts you to drawing?
Wow. Honestly I don’t know how well I can answer this because I don’t ever remember starting to draw, I just always have, it’s just part of who I am. For me, I’m always really attracted to anything that allows me to create and I think drawing was just the first thing I really practiced and stuck with.
What kind of things do you like to draw?
People. I have always had a great love of drawing people. In college my favorite class by far was figure drawing and I wish I could get back to that. Recently I’ve really been focusing on portraits.
Tell us about drawing these pictures..
Edward:
This drawing of Edward/Rob Pattinson is a drawing I started back in January for TTIC12 – Twilight Quotes. I started with this quote…
“Edward Cullen was standing four cars down from me, staring at me in horror. His face stood out from a sea of faces, all frozen in the same mask of shock.”
I grabbed the corresponding image from the movie and got started. I used construction lines to help me plot out the basic pencil sketch and then began shading. For this drawing I used a 2H, B, and 2B Design brand drawing pencils and a couple of basic blending tortillions which I’m not a huge fan of and don’t really like to use but this drawing called for it. This particular brand of pencil isn’t artist grade but it’s what my students were using at the time so I chose to use them. The paper is 70 lb. Strathmore drawing paper.
You can see from the works in progress how the drawing progressed. I usually start with eyes on any given portrait because it’s the most important part to get correct. If the eyes are wrong the drawing won’t work. From there I filled in the face, the hair, the jacket and finally the background.
Bella:
Bella is a totally different type of drawing. For this one I did not use construction lines (a grid) I just started drawing. From the beginning I new this would be a much quicker drawing than the one of Edward.
I fairly loosely sketched out her face and body then I began adding value in a light squiggles (you may need to click the picture to see those details). With this particular drawing I worked all over the place at one time. I’d do a little hair, then face, then shirt and built the whole thing up at once. With Edward I didn’t work that way. On that drawing it was a very systematic process of working from one section to the next. The two styles give very different results.
What mediums did you use to draw these pictures?
These are graphite pencil and most recently I’ve been using pencil a lot but I also really like using graphite sticks as well as charcoal and conte crayon.
Your drawings are extremely life like. The buttons and zipper on Edward’s jacket are so realistic looking. Is it hard to do this type of drawing?
Honestly, no I don’t think so. They aren’t hard so much as tedious. There are parts of that specific drawing that I found to be much more difficult to get correct, ahem… jaw line, but the jacket as a whole was VERY tedious.
Do you get frustrated easily?
No, not really. For me its more a case of getting easily bored, lol.
How many hours did it take to draw each picture?
It really depends on the level of detail. Dear Edward here took me about 43 hours, Bella on the other hand was a mere 6.
What kind of paper do you like to draw on?
That really depends on what I’m drawing medium I’m using. When I draw with pencil I prefer a high grade drawing paper or hot press Bristol board. With graphite sticks I really like newsprint the best but it sadly that doesn’t have too long of a life. When I use charcoal I tend to use charcoal paper or some other really toothy paper.
Toothy paper?
Tooth refers to the texture/surface feel of the paper. All paper has a texture but depending on how it was made it may be rougher or smoother. High quality drawing paper, Bristol board, illustration board, and most average card stock tend to be very smooth so when you uses pencil, marker or colored pencil the grain doesn’t show through and the medium you use sits on smoothly on top of the paper. If a paper has a tooth to it you can usually see the paper grain through the medium you apply to it. Pastel paper, charcoal paper, cheap drawing paper and textured card stock all have a fairly high tooth.
Do you have a favorite type of pencil?
My favorite brand right now is Derwent but I’ve got my eye on a Sanford Turquoise Lead Holder and leads set. I also really like woodless graphite pencils – they are fantastic to work with for quicker drawings.
Do you ever use colored pencils?
Yep, just about every day when I’m teaching but otherwise not all that often. I wish I did though. I think with my job I’ve sort of burnt myself out on them.
Do you have any advice for stampers who use colored pencils in their coloring?
Sure. I really believe technique is important. It’s really worth the time it takes to learn how to blend colored pencils effectively and it’s a MUST to learn how to smoothly shade from light to dark. Practice is key! Stamp out some images on a blank piece of cheapish white paper and practice until you are able to get the blending smooth. And here’s the tip that always gets my kids – you have to THINK about making your hand press from hard to soft… it’s doesn’t magically happen, lol. When blending two colors of colored pencils you should layer the colors lightly several times starting with a base coat of the lighter color. As you blend the lighter of the two colors will actually smooth the two colors together into one. And if you want my advice as far as brands go I would buy Crayola, Prismacolor Scholars or regular Prismacolors. I personally favor the Prismacolor Scholars. They come in packs up to 48 pencils and are very nearly as good a artist grade Prismacolors without the extra expense. Crayolas are great to learn with.
Often, stampers use colored pencils and markers to color their stamped images. A lot of stampers then have trouble trying to figure out where and how to shadow their images. Do you have any helpful hints for them?
One of the tricks I use it to find a reference photo from Flickr.com or the web that is similar to what I am trying to shade and use it to help me get the basic lights and darks of the image correct. You can see that in the images below.
The image on the left is part of my card from TTIC 36 using an Artful INKables stamp and the image on the right is the reference I used to help me define the lights and darks as I colored. As you can see I didn’t stay completely faithful to the reference because there were some differences in the overall image but most of the information is there.
How do you keep yourself motivated?
For me the thing that keeps me motivated is what I’m drawing. People are very interesting to me. So much can be communicated through one photograph or one drawing and I love trying to capture feelings or emotions in pictures. The other thing that always keeps me motivated is learning new techniques… trying a new pencil, a new material, figuring out how to perfect it, staying current on DeviantArt.com and challenging myself to a higher level based on what I see coming from the artists there.
What is your favorite type of art?
Ironically my favorite art to look at tends to be more of the abstract. I love expressionism, post impressionism, and cubism. Those styles to me are just so interesting and not something that I could ever in a million years pull off, lol.
Artist?
I find artists like Picasso and Van Gogh just amazing. Van Gogh especially, to have created such a huge body of work in just two years and to have been completely self taught is amazing to me. To look at his work linearly and see the progress he made is just phenomenal. I also really love the contemporary artist Keith Haring. There is just something about his work that calls to me. I adore the simple lines and highly stylized graphics.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Part 2 interview with Jen. She’ll be showing us step-by-step how to shadow and shade when we color our stamped images!
Also, Jen will be taking questions if you happen to want to ask! So don’t be shy!!
Design Team | 
Tonya | July 2, 2009
By Beth, July 2, 2009 @ 6:43 am
Awesome!
Beth´s last blog ..TTIC36 ~ What Says Twilight to You?
By ScrappyTwiholic, July 2, 2009 @ 10:48 am
This interview is WONDERFUL! Jen, I sure wish I lived close to you. My daughter is 4 and is really, really into drawing right now. She is surprisingly good for a 4 year old. She can do things from memory, but she really likes to have what she is drawing in front of her as a reference. I can’t draw a stick figure myself, so I wish I had someone to take this talent and really draw (sorry, no pun intended) out of her.
By Donna, July 2, 2009 @ 4:18 pm
I love all your work Jen….Especially the drawings! Xx
Donna´s last blog ..You Capture – Photographer’s Choice.
By Jane / whoopsie daisy, July 3, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
What a FANTASTIC interview!!! I love to draw and this has been SO informational! It’s something I have been wanting to get really into, just for the fun of it… not that I have remotely any talent for it whatsoever. LOL!
Your work is amazing, Jen. Thank you for sharing!! xx