Baxter continued…

Baxter part 2

It feels good to be using colored pencil again. As I work on this piece it occurs to me that I lay down colored pencil marks differently from many other colored pencil artists. Instead of treating the marks as stroked lines, I tend to add color like a painter would, in a layered/glazing fashion. It was only after returning to colored pencils again after my recent “watercolor break” that I realized this. Of course, I do stroke lines onto my pieces as well, especially when using non-waxy pencils. But mostly I treat the medium in a painterly fashion. I’m not sure when I learned to do this. Perhaps it was in school when I was smoothing all my colored pencil pieces with solvent. Since the marks were going to be smoothed out anyway, why add color by stroking it?

I also give some credit to my Dad who is a talented oil and acrylic painter. He was a student of Reuben Tam’s and his style reflects both Tam’s and another favorite painter of his, Richard Diebenkorn. These artists’ styles are much too abstract for my tastes, but I can appreciate them nonetheless. I’ve been looking at their work (and my Dad’s) for so long it isn’t hard to imagine that some of their color blocking techniques have seeped into my consciousness. Could be worse… ;-)