September 2026 Showcase - Colored Pencil Artwork
The three artists featured in the September 2026 issue of COLOR Magazine Showcase share the stories behind their beautiful artwork here in our blog.
Summer in Beilngries by Andrea Hieke
11.8 x 17.7 inches
Caran d’Ache Luminance colored pencils on Fabriano Artistico extra white, hot pressed. (Original design/concept, drawn from life, en plein air.)
As an artist, my inspiration often comes from unexpected places. Sometimes it is found in a dramatic landscape, a powerful expression, or a meaningful story. For me, the inspiration for this drawing came from something much simpler: colorful lanterns hanging above the streets of my hometown.
Every summer, the historic town of Beilngries is decorated with hundreds of bright lanterns suspended high above the old streets. They have become a familiar part of the season, and yet they never lose their magic.
What I enjoy most is watching how people react to them. Visitors often stop, look up, and smile. For a moment, worries seem to disappear and the atmosphere becomes lighter.
The truth is that I react the same way.
Even after seeing these lanterns year after year, they still make me smile. They remind me that beauty does not always come from extraordinary events. Sometimes it can be found in small moments that many people pass by without noticing.
That feeling became the inspiration for “Summer in Beilngries.”
Rather than creating a portrait filled with drama or mystery, I wanted to celebrate joy, warmth, and the simple pleasures of everyday life. The reflection of the lanterns in the sunglasses became the heart of the composition. Through those reflections, the viewer is invited to step into the scene and experience the atmosphere of a summer day in my town.
The drawing was created with colored pencils, a medium I love for its ability to capture subtle detail and vibrant color. I wanted the bright lanterns, the warm sunlight, and the relaxed expression to work together to tell a story about happiness found in ordinary moments.
In a world that often feels fast and complicated, this artwork is a reminder to pause, look up, and appreciate the small things that bring us joy.
About Andrea Hieke:
Andrea Hieke is a self-taught German artist who works primarily in highly detailed portrait drawings using colored pencils and graphite. Working in a realistic style, she aims to go beyond a simple likeness, focusing instead on capturing atmosphere, emotion, and the story that lies within a single moment.
See more at www.facebook.com/andreahieke.fineart
If They Could Talk by Kimberlee Farnham
5 x 7 inches
Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d’Ache Luminance colored pencils on Pastelmat. (Reference photo used with permission from Pexels.)
There is a grammar to hands that no spoken language has ever fully captured. In colored pencil, layered and pressed into the grain of paper, that grammar becomes visible, a syntax of touch, of holding, and of reaching across the small distances between people.
What makes colored pencils so honest for hands is their intimacy. Every layer stroke by stroke with the artists own hands. Together, the hands in this drawing do what hands done best: tell a story without words. Rendered in colored pencil, these details do not merely describe; they sing. The waxy pigment follows the artist’s instinct, building warmth in the flesh tones, deepening shadow in the creases, and finding the cool lavender that lives surprisingly in what the eye first reads as simply skin. The colored pencils captured what photographs rarely do: not just what the hands look like, but what they mean. They speak of the people who belong to them, their ages perhaps, their tenderness, and the ease or earnestness with which they reach toward one another. Whether clasped or loosely gathered, overlapping or side by side, their arrangement carries meaning.
About Kimberlee Farnham:
Kim Farnham is a self-taught colored pencil artist. This medium allows for the fine details she thrives on.
See more at www.facebook.com
The Naturalists by Margi Hopkins
24 x 20 inches
Polychromos and Holbein colored pencils on 300# Fabiano Artistico, hot pressed. (Reference photo by Drausin Wulsin, used with permission.)
This is a commissioned portrait of two naturalists holding tulip poplar blossoms which are rarely seen up close, because they flower high up in the tree. Clearly this couple is enjoying their find.
This was a particularly daunting endeavor. Rarely is a human portrait commission easy, but this one was nuts. The photo reference was not mine. I would never have chosen the lighting. The female figure was in half shadow and shot on a phone with the low resolution of 72 DPI The edges of her face disappeared when blown up. Other important details were lost as well. I hadn’t met the clients in person, so I was completely dependent on a less than perfect reference photo. Oh and by the way, “Please include the entire background of the nature preserve.”
After some chin scratching I chose to use oil-based colored pencils. Even though, in my opinion, they are more difficult to layer than wax pencils, I predicted the resulting softness might allow for a more impressionistic piece. Another benefit was the ease with which they lifted using frisket film and erased where bright whites were needed. Achieving likeness was a challenge. But, with some educated guessing, and back and forth communication with the client, I got there in the end.
About Margi Hopkins:
Margi Hopkins, CPSA, SAA earned her BFA at Denison University specializing in printmaking and drawing. She opened Pepper Portraits in 2001. She is a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society and the Society of Animal Artists. She is also a member of Masterworks for Nature.
See more at www.pepperportraits.com
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