November 2012 Pencil Tips – Holiday Schedule

Glanco Art Studio

News and tips from Diana Glanco

The Album
by Diana Glanco ©2012

New Series of Classes Begins November 13th, 14th and 15th.

Tuesdays 10 – Noon

Wednesdays 2 – 4

Thursdays 2 – 4

Thursdays 6 – 8

If you are interested in a Wednesday 10-noon class, contact me.

Holiday Schedule:

Tuesday and Wednesday students – 6 weeks, $87.000

Thursday students – 5 weeks, $72.50

For a full class calendar or for more class information visit my website. www.DianaGlanco.com

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31 (NKJV)

August 2012 Pencil Tips – Complementary Colors

Glanco Art Studio

News and tips from Diana Glanco

Portrait by Donna Nank – Lodi, OH
Graphite pencil on paper
First place winner at the 2012 Medina County Fair

New Series of Classes to begin August 28th, 29th and 30th.

There will be no Wednesday morning classes until further notice.

For the time being, the class schedule is as follows:

Tuesdays 10 – Noon

Wednesdays 2 – 4

Thursdays 2 – 4

Thursdays 6 -8

Topic of the Month – Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are located across from each other on the color wheel. For example, yellow and violet are complementary because when placed next to one another, yellow will never look more yellow than when it is next to violet and vice versa. A color will stand out or even look brighter when next to or surrounded by its complement. Keep this in mind to make your colors really pop.

When complements are mixed together they neutralize or dull each other. When layering your pencils to mix neutrals, you will create grays and shadows that are compatible with your color scheme.

Remember to stay within the same value range when mixing complements to create shadows.

Prismacolor Pencil Color Wheel

Prismacolor Color Wheel This color wheel is made of hues of Prismacolor pencils. I hope you find this useful when choosing colors and determining which pencils to use as complements.

For more information about classes go to DianaGanco.com

July 2012 Pencil Tips – Composition

Horse Hug by Sheri Eichar
Prismacolor on Strathmore Bristol

Featured Artist:

 Sheri Eichar

 Wooster, Ohio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topic of the month: Composition

The Rule of Thirds

Since we often are tempted to place the subject of our work right smack dab in the middle of the paper, I want to introduce the “Rule of Thirds”, AKA “The Golden Rule” of aesthetics.

 

The “Rule of Thirds” is a guideline to help you with composition.

In your mind, divide your paper in sections of nine equal parts focusing on the areas where the lines intersect. These points will be the best spots to place the most important element of your artwork whether your piece is horizontal or vertical. To achieve balance in your work, you may wish to place an object of less importance at the opposite intersection of lines.

You have followed the Rule of Thirds if you avoid placing the subject in the center square.

 

 

Since there are no hard and fast rules in art, don’t be intimidated by the Rule of Thirds. If you want to center the subject, remember that it is your artwork and you can do it your way.

FYI: One to three is a good proportion of vinegar to oil also.  🙂

Wayne County Fair

The Wayne County Fair is coming soon and I encourage all of you to enter at least one piece of your artwork.

Entries close on August 18th, so you still have time. Your artwork does not have to be delivered until September 5th or 6th.

If you need an entry form or want more information be sure to contact me.

Medina County Fair deadline is already past so I hope all of you who wanted to enter have done so.

Classes

The last classes of this session will be August 28th, 29th and 30th.

For more Info:

DianaGlanco.com

June 2012 Pencil Tips

Donna by Rene Myers

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—-Donna Wilcox

—-1952 – 2012

New Class Sessions Start June 26th, 27th & 28 .

Tuesday Morning Quiet Class. Minimum conversation and gentle music for those who need a quiet place to create. Please let me know if you class.

New Class Sessions Start July 10th, 11th & 12th.

No Classes the week of Independence Day. I hope you enjoy our nation’s birthday.

Tuesday Morning Quiet Class. Minimum conversation and gentle music for those who need a quiet place to create. Please let me know if you are interested in joining this class.

Please visit my website for more information about classes, colored pencils and drawing. DianaGlanco.com

May 2012 Pencil Tips – Shadows

May 2012 Newsletter

Alex

Graphite on paper

by Featured artist:

Marsha Watson

Barberton, Ohio

New Class Sessions Start May 2nd  & 3rd.

I am also considering a class for Tuesday mornings form 10 til 12.

This will be called a Quiet Class. Minimum conversation and gentle music for those who need a quiet place to create. Please let me know if you are interested in joining this class.

Topic of the Month:

Cast Shadows and Form Shadows

You must create believable shadows to add life and volume to your drawing. By volume, I mean that quality that makes your work appear to be 3 dimensional. When you create a line drawing everything on the paper is flat. By adding shading in the right values and places your drawing begins to look like it has substance and weight.

The two types of shadows that create volume in your artwork are form shadows and cast shadows. This is true whether it be black and white or color.

Form Shadows – A form shadow is present on the side of any object that is facing away from the main light source. Form shadows generally have soft edges and often may have ambient light from a secondary light source. Think of this on the side of a nose. It is the soft shadow that reveals the shape of the nose.

Cast shadows fall upon another surface and are caused by an object that blocks the light. Cast shadows are usually darker and have sharper edges than form shadows. Cast shadows will often become lighter and have softer edges as they move away from the object that is blocking the light source. Again, think of the nose. The cast shadow will be on the side of the nose that has the least light.
I did the original painting below in Prismacolor® pencils then removed the color so that you could study the shadows in gray-scale. I hope this helps you differentiate the qualities in form shadows and cast shadows.

All of your artwork is a study of values. The lights and the darks. Carefully evaluate your reference photo to understand the main source of light and the deepest shadows. As you begin to master shadows and light,  your work will take on a 3-dimensional quality and you will become more and more pleased with the results.

Please visit my website for more information about classes, colored pencils and drawing. DianaGlanco.com

April 2012 Pencil Tips – Color Basics

Ronald Reagan

Graphite on paper

by Featured artist:

Heidi Yoder

Millersburg, Ohio

It’s time to sign up for classes again! May/June classes begin May 2nd and 3rd. Let me know if you want me to save you a spot.

http://dianaglanco.com/studioclasses.html

Topic of the month:

Color Basics

Hue, value and saturation are the three components of color.

Hue

Hue is what gives each color its name. Hue exists for each of us in our eye, our brain and in our memory and is, therefore, different for everyone.

The terms hue and color are often used interchangeably but hue is only one element of color.

Value

Value is the term used to describe a color’s lightness or darkness.  High value means light and low value means dark. It is the only component of color that can be used without hue as a neutral.

Saturation

Saturation describes the brightness or dullness of a color. Chroma, intensity and brilliance are other terms that are used to describe saturation. Pure, unmixed colors are usually at their greatest brilliance.

Color Temperature

Colors appear to have temperature because of our association of hues to hot and cold object like fire and ice.

The colors near red appear to be warm while those colors close to blue give the appearance of cool.

Some reds may be cooler than other reds while some blues may be warmer than other blues depending on what other colors are near them.

March 2012 Pencil Tips – Values

Sleeping Child

Graphite on paper

by Featured artist:

Jill Rohr

Navarre, Ohio

It’s time to sign up for classes again! March/April classes begin March 7th and 8th. Let me know if you want me to save you a spot.

http://dianaglanco.com/studioclasses.html

Topic of the month:

VALUES

In painting as in life, you can get away with a great deal as long as you have your values right. – Harley Brown, Contemporary American artist and author

Value is simply the light and dark in your drawing – all of the tones that range from white to black. Being able to identify the proper values is far more important than recognizing the right color. Once you understand values you will have an easier time working with color.

One way to identify value is to squint at your reference photo and drawing. Squinting blurs the details and allows you to see the shapes and shades.

Dominant value is the major tone of your drawing. Squint at the reference and determine if the drawing you make from it will be predominantly light, medium or dark.

Work your drawing as a whole creating the background, if there is one, at the same time you work the subject matter. This will give your piece a greater continuity and help you see the background as an integral part of the whole instead of treating it as a have-to-do-to-get-it-over-with.

As you see in the featured drawing above, this piece is predominantly done in a medium value. Jill has carefully used black for accents and volume. She has anchored the child on a light base (the blanket) and allowed the background to be white, creating a pleasant vignette.

February 2012 Pencil Tips – Strathmore® Paper

 

 

Featured Artist:

Tracy Kaser

Brewster, OH

 

Prismacolor® pencil on Strathmore® paper

The Paper We Use

 By now, since most of you know that my paper of choice is 2-ply Strathmore ® 500 Bristol board with a vellum finish, I would like to tell you a bit about why I choose this paper and some of it’s characteristics that make it desirable in the work we do.

 Bristol – compressing two or more pieces of paper together creates Bristol board. The more paper used, the heavier the weight of the board.

 2-ply – this indicates that 2 pieces of paper have been compressed to make one sheet.

 500 Series – the number 500 indicates the quality of the paper. Strathmore is one of the makers of high quality art papers that range from newsprint to fine archival papers. Their Bristol boards are graded according to the numbers 200, 300, 400 and 500.

• 200 series is considered an economical student grade the weight is 100#.
• 300 series is slightly higher quality than 200 series student grade the weight is also100#.
• 400 series is a high-quality multi-ply board that comes in 2, 3, and 4 ply boards. It is considered student grade since it is not 100% rag paper.
• 500 series is a high-quality multi-ply board that comes in 2, 3, and 4 ply boards. It is an acid free100% cotton paper. I have found that the board that is used in tablets is not the same as the board sold in sheets. The surface of the paper in the tablets is less desirable to work on so I prefer the paper sold in sheets.

 Vellum surface – also called vellum finish, refers to the texture of the paper. Vellum surface has a toothy finish that is excellent for pencil.

This paper does not yellow over time, it holds up to repeated erasing and works extremely well for both graphite or colored pencil drawing since the tooth is deep enough to hold multiple layers of pencil. Being acid free, the paper will not oxidize (which causes yellowing) and it will not destroy the medium that has been applied to it.