Gathering (a rocky one)

Gathering I, by Yelena-Shabrova - pen & ink on drawing paper, 4" x 6"
Gathering I – pen & ink on drawing paper, 4″ x 6″

Commission a similar drawing

This one started as an exercise after I haven’t done any pointillism in more than a year. In the process of getting the feel of the pen again I began to see a composition in the bunch of rock textures and from that point treated the small drawing more seriously.

The horses came into the picture last to make things more interesting. I thought of lighter-colored petroglyphs etched on a dark rock surface and decided to reverse colors. That seemed to work better with the rest of my rocks.

There is another Gathering piece in the making already. Turned out playing with rocks in black and white is just as exiting as doing it in color.

The original drawing ($80.00) and high quality 4″ x 6″ giclee prints are available in my Pen and Ink online gallery

Sketchy horse

sketchy horse - digital art (done with Harmony)

“Sketchy” is a style in Harmony that I like the most. Besides being imprecise and somewhat unpredictable by nature, it does not take kindly to thinking as you draw. The result is always a disaster, and the later in the process it happens the worse it looks. Since this is my first attempt to draw a horse in Harmony, disasters happened more than once. Luckily, I only use black and white, so for the most part when black gets out of control I managed to offset it with white. It’s not exactly erasing, but I think it works.

Other things I learned:

– colors in the color wheel come out anything but what I select and what shows in the preview square. Grays always have some odd tint, so I had to drop the idea of using them, or this would be one psychedelic horse head. I was not in the mood for psychedelic at all.

– apparently just because you can draw on the sides of the toolbox that is centered at the top of the page, it does not mean that you can draw behind it too; that’s how the horse lost nice pointy ears that I was going to give her

“From the Heart” exhibit with FALC, 2/1/2009 till 2/28/2009

Two artworks on display at Main Street Cafe as a part of the group exhibit “From the Heart” organized by Fine Art League of Cupertino: Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park and a new one, Mom & Son.

The exhibit is from February 1 till February 28, 2009.

Reception: Thursday, February 12, 6-7:30pm

Address: 134 Main Street, Los Altos, CA 94022

Hours: Monday – Saturday: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday: 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Yelena Shabrova ~ Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park ~ Prismacolor colored pencil on Bristol paper, 16" x 20"
Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park ~ Prismacolor colored pencil on Bristol paper, 16″ x 20″
Mom & Son - charcoal on colored paper, 20" x 16"
Mom & Son – charcoal on colored paper, 20″ x 16″

Running Free – finally done!

Yelena Shabrova ~ Running Free - pastel pencil on colored paper, 12″ x 9″Running Free - pastel pencil on colored paper, 12″ x 9″

This one was in the works since 2000. I vaguely remember being excited when I just started with it, but then life got in the way with moving and traveling to Russia, and when I’ve picked the pencils again I hit a creative block. No matter what approach I tried, no matter what part of the drawing I chose to work on – nothing felt right. So I would walk away and work on something else, come back, felt that the creative block was still there, and put the stubborn artwork away again. I am not sure what’s changed recently, but “Running Free” was completed with just a few short sessions. Maybe it happened because last time I’ve left it alone for the longest period ever.