So now it's all about the pencils

 7/28/21

Over the past few months I have spent a lot of time testing the lightfastness of some  colored pencils and even inks I own. I also got a few new pencils. There are so many pencils to choose from but it helps to watch reviews and try to figure out what works for me. Being an oil painter since I was 12 years old made me choose the oil based Derwent Lightfast Pencils. They are expensive but the reviews saved me a lot of money because it helped me to choose just a few (maybe more than a few).

I already trust the lightfastness of these pencils. I just wanted to try different things like blending with other oil based pencils. Swatches I do have are numbered so I can refer to the pencil I mixed. I like my June Gold pencils and a few of them are fugitive. June Gold doesn't come with numbers or colors on them. I have to assign them numbers and label them. I put the fugitive colors away for other things like in a journal. I stick swatches in the window facing the sun because that is where I get the most sun. I leave them there for 3 months. The test I did with Derwent Drawing pencils set of 12 turned out some lovely distressed and landscape colors. 

The next 4 scans are the colors of Derwent Drawing after I tested them for 3 months. These are my kind of colors. 

I really crave getting my hands on some other oil based pencils like the Koh-I-Noor polycolor and Polychromos but I have really spent out on these pencils and it is beyond enough to draw anything. 

 5/6/21

I have been drawing lately and purchased a few sets of colored pencils. I have colored pencils from decades ago but never spent too much time with them. I was looking at youtube and saw how many people love to color with them and relax. So I got out my old pencils and added some new things to the collection. 

I made a drawing from one of my doll photos and printed it on regular copy paper. Then I colored it with Derwent Drawing Pencils and June Gold Pencils. The June Gold Pencils are not professional but I need some colors that aren't featured in the set of 12 Derwent Drawing Pencils. I love the June Gold Pencils a lot. I wish all pencils behaved like these. 

This is the original black and white drawing I made last fall. The doll was a 5star Mia doll that I purchased secondhand when I first found these dolls. I think she was my first ball-jointed doll.

The June Gold Pencils are the skinny ones with the labels on them. The fat pencils are Zebra Zensations. I just love how you click them like a mechanical pencil and get new lead. I never have to sharpen them even though June Gold's come with sharpener in the end of every pencil. I just wish all pencils were that neat and easy to use. The core is 2mm and surprisingly strong. The pencils were very affordable for someone who isn't sure they want to take up coloring (me). I really wasn't sure I wanted to color. When I realized how many pencils I do have I decided to get a new pencil case too. But I really wouldn't carry such a large case on short trips. I need to start choosing my favorites to make a smaller carry case.

I am certainly not affiliated with anyone and don't really do reviews. So anything I write is my honest opinion. I do try to stay positive and if I didn't like them, I wouldn't say anything at all. 

The difference in the low end pencils and the professional grade is one, the price. I am not an expert on pencils but one thing I noticed about professional pencils is they have lightfastness ratings. Lightfastness is not really an issue when you are drawing in a journal. Lightfastness is an issue for professionals to display their art in frames. A few years ago I got some Reader's Digest watercolor pencils. The pencils came with a book about watercolors. I painted a few things and hung them in my room. They did gently fade in the past decade. They are still lovely in my opinion but I can tell that sunlight has reached them over time. That would be an issue if I was selling my work for display. 

One really nice thing about these pencils is they are resistant to water. I tipped over a cup of coffee this morning and some splashed on my swatches. I quickly took a paper towel and cleaned them. The coffee didn't even stain them. Whew! Thank goodness. It took a whole day to swatch all those pencils.

I have been making Rocky some legs and feet

Today I worked on making Rocky some legs and feet. Then when it got too hot outside, I went inside and made him some elf shoes. I think they need a little embellishment with some bells. I loosely strung Rocky to see how he is going to look when he is all dressed up for Christmas. He is shorter than his outfit but it is still cute. He needs some arms now. I realized I cut the blocks for his arms too short too. I went outside and cut some new blocks. Tomorrow I will make him some arms and hands. He has to be done this weekend so he will have time to learn about Christmas. I also think he needs a hat to match his shoes. This would help to balance the colors I chose for him. I wanted a warm color but not exactly a red. The package of felt I bought had a lovely mixture of browns, rusts, burgundy, tans, and greens. I think the colors are beautiful and the small pieces are perfect for making tiny doll things.

 Rocky stands well even loosely strung. I made him with pretty chunky feet just for that reason.

His eyes look like they follow me. I'm always very happy when I get eyes that seem to follow me around as I move, even though the eyes are stationary. I have not yet figured out why some dolls have that effect and others don't. I thought it was the way the eyes were made. These are little plastic eyes that I can paint and then put together--kind of like Blythe eye chips but with half round whites and clear pupils. The smallest size of eye I could find so far was 8mm. The eyes are a bit large for this size of doll, but that's all I have. The other eyes I have had, which seem to move, are glass and have spherical pupils in them. 

 I sketched out a pattern for the shoes and made one pair too large. The next pair was just right so I traced around them on a cardboard just for Rocky. A larger doll fortunately could wear the extra shoes. So that worked out for Rocky and someone else.

Happy Easter!

4-1-18

Happy Easter Holiday! I had a nice reclusive day working on my own witch doll, which I am carving from alabaster. Her name is Topaz and she is turned into Topaz from Alabaster. She is becoming a fully customizable doll. I have carved her eye sockets to take 8mm eyes, which I am painting probably this week. She has pierced ears too, so she can get decked out in her most precious of jewels. Warning: this is a very long post.

 Her head cap is a bit lop sided but that is probably because the stone was lop sided and I cut from one side with my dominant hand. I did that to keep the cap flush so I could add magnets to hold her head together. It won't show once she gets her very own wig.

 Her ears need more detailing. But I had to work in the pierced ears first. I like to work from the outside in and then the inside out, back and forth. That way I don't take away too much material. 

 I made some magnet holes the exact depth of some I have on hand. Then I marked around them heavily with chalk so I could transfer the circles to the matching side.

 I gave her wrinkles because she is elderly. I really went with what I saw in the rock, so as not to waste the material. 

 I am going to blush her with my Conte chalk. I already found that if I rub enough the chalk will take. She is a bit dusty right now, because I worked on her today and haven't cleaned her off yet. She is actually orange or tangerine alabaster. 

 This is how her head cap will go on with the magnets. I wanted to go ahead and put them in but they are so strong they pull on my tools while I am carving and I will have to wait till the very last detail is in place. 

 She said to me "hurry up with them eyes. I can't see too well."

I took notes since I started carving. I wasn't even sure I could get this far. I began on 3-23-18 with my alabaster I've had since 2014. So I had been wishing for this for a very long time.  I took pictures of my rock before I cut the block out.  I think it came from Utah. It was called Tangerine Alabaster, but I think it looks like flesh tone to me. That's what made me think to turn it into a doll of some sort. 

 I used some round and half round files I had in my toolbox to get started on my chunk.

 I have carved faces into soap stone before, but this is my first ever head. I have carved alabaster before and won a prize my very first try. Next I photographed my rock when it is windy and cold. I put the photo in Corel Paint and draw where I would like to eliminate stone. These next pictures show somewhere close to what I want for the head. 

 3-27-18

After a few minutes outside I got deeper eye sockets and a little bit more symmetry to the face.  I started with a corner that looked like an easy place to start a nose. I studied a few videos of woodworkers carving spirits from wood. I keep looking at my piece and see myself Bringing a Witch from the Stone. I don't want too much symmetry. I do think I would like nasolabial folds and wrinkles. My doll is an old person. This just feels right, making my own, Witch. Sunken eyes and cheeks start to appear to me, making me think my figure is very ancient and wise. 

Next I show pictures of my very old tools. I have this vintage Dremel, which is slow enough speed I have time to think about what I am doing. The other tools are heavy even though I have attachments they have cords to watch after. I just grab a bit to work with. I don't think I really want to memorize how I did it. Each carving is as different as the tools used to do this. I like the experience of how each bit works and feels with different materials. The batteries on these old Dremels last about 30 minutes with non-stop use. I have 2 so I can charge while working. All my other tools are either hand tools or 120V. I wear a dust mask too.

 3-29-18

Today I finally, cut the shape of the head out of the alabaster piece I am doing.  It is dark when I finally come in so the flash on my camera makes the face look a bit shallow. It is still a work in progress. I just go with what I see and hope for the best.  I washed off some dust and found an inclusion in the brow. I believe I can work with it. I kind of like it. So far my witch looks kind of like Frankenwitch. I think I will go ahead and pull out some ears so I won't grind down the head too deeply to leave space for ears. I'm grinding the head to a rounder form. 

Profile of one side. No undercuts yet. I'm saving the more delicate cuts till the end to keep from breaking off the nose or mouth. Ears will be added when I get the head rounded better.

3-30-18

I decided to plan for ears. I cut out some ear shapes and cut around them for depth. I take the pictures to study what needs to be done before I put in delicate details that could be damaged during the process.

 I cut up under the nose a little bit more but hesitated because I am still planning the larger part of shaping the head a bit more. I want her to have temples and skin folds around the mouth . I keep thinking that every doll has its very own expression. This will be my doll's expression. She looks kind of like she's chewing the fat or considering the facts. As if to say hmm my little pretty where goes you? I found a jaw line.

 I am still saving the plate underneath her chin. It seems to be a harder material. I think it might help with support when I add a body to the doll. In the picture it is the white line where her neck is. 

 I can see here where she needs a little bit of smoothing out. I am going to try that with a wet dry sanding sponge.

 The ears have good depth but now her head is sort of like a triangle again. I am switching to a very fine carving bit on my old slow Dremel next so I can do just a bit of details. Just a little bit. I know this isn't where I want the entire piece yet.

 I noticed one side of her face is always a bit rougher than the other. But I started on the corner and one side of the corner was more concave. I don't like to waste one inch of my rock so I went with that. I like to let the rock tell me what it is becoming. 

 She kind of looks like a little old man. I almost want her to be a wizard, but the story is better if she is a little old lady. It's like men are from Mars. I wouldn't have as rich a story, if my doll was a  male spirt from the stone.

Same thing with the ear. This side of the head is a bit rough. I like the jaw line I pulled out for her. She's beginning to speak to me. She's saying "stop hesitating and just draw me a face please". 

 I can see why dolls have exaggerated features. She really looks like she has no face hardly at all from the front. I even gave her a wrinkle in the front of her forehead but it isn't showing up in the photos--probably because of the flash.

 The bottom of the head shows the ears I put in. It really needs rounding up some too. 

 The top of the head is coming along nicely. I am going to make her a wig. I want her to be completely my doing with no help from anyone.

Cutting line to open the head for custom glass eyes and ball-jointed neck.

 Drawing in some ideas about how I want her to look.

 Getting ready to detail ears. One thing I noticed looking at portraits of older people is they don't seem as symmetrical as the young. The can have shorter chins and longer upper lip to the nose area. They can have fallen noses versus perky noses. 

 I'm going to cut her open and scoop out the innards of her head so she can be customized like a bjd. I don’t think she should be painted ever but I may use some blend of pastel chalk and water color to give her some blush. She will have sealant first but not the art type. I might use carnauba wax and Tung oil first. She definitely needs a fine sanding. 

 I am running into problems with details because the fine dust makes it hard to hold a fine line. I'm thinking I may have to use water to keep dust out of my view.

3-31-18

Today I put in a few more details. Found out my sanding sponge works well for smoothing out tool marks. I am going to color some scrap pieces with my Conte chalks and find a way to blush my doll. I am having problems with ears. She wears about a size 6 wig. I was aiming for that scale of doll. I cut her head open. 

 But first I bored holes where her eyes will be. It helps to plan how deeply I will carve out the head for the eyeballs and neck joint. Plus I used my late dad's old drill and it is heavy and powerful. I was thinking the pressure of the drill might fracture all the work I have already done.

Now I will be able to work from the inside a way and then the outside so I won't cut too much away. 

 I used a series of circle bits meant for stone cutting to bore out the head. I started with the largest one I could use and then decreased to the smallest one I needed. Then I used a grinding bit to clean up any leftover lines. I can see where the holes are that came through the eyes. That was my guide to keep me from cutting through to her face. Those bits don't fit my Dremel so I don’t have any speed control with my Dad's drill. That thing is fast and powerful. It's meant for doing work like carpentry.

 The third hole is where I will be working with some type of neck joint. It got too dark to see outside, and my battery operated Dremel is charging now, so I have to wait till tomorrow to continue. Then back to work I will go. The days are longer now, so I will be able to do something in the afternoons. I hope to get some magnets in this weekend and the eyes finished. I have a wig that I made myself but it needs a little bit of silver hair added to it, since she's elderly.