USD
0

Ann's Colored Pencil News & Stuff!

For my Super Workshops (5-days, limited to 5 students) I require students send me their reference photos and line drawings about a month before the workshop begins. I become Mean & Picky Ann at this point, and won't let them transfer their tracing onto their drawing paper until I'm completely happy with their tracing. When it comes to portraits, you can not be careful enough with your line drawing (tracing) and if you rush this step and trace inaccurately, all is pretty much lost from the start. 

Safe Tracing Practices

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Mar 30, 2015
  • 4 Comments
For my Super Workshops (5-days, limited to 5 students) I require students send me their reference photos and line drawings about a month before the workshop begins. I become Mean & Picky Ann at this point, and won't let them transfer their tracing onto their drawing paper until I'm completely happy with their tracing. When it comes to portraits, you... View more
About 2 years ago, North Light books contacted me about a copyright infringement. An illustrator had copied two drawings from my Colored Pencil Portraits book.  The illustrator had made minor changes (hair color) but it was clearly copyright infringement. The drawings were included in a children's book by a small publishing company.  Even though the publishers themselves were completely ignorant of the illustrator's copyright infringement,

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: It's a serious offense...

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Dec 02, 2014
  • 4 Comments
A Shock After 2 years in retirement, we brought our wonderful GLU-it TO-it widget back in stock. A couple days after putting it online, I checked Google to see if they'd already picked up the image from my website. They had!  (Google is some kind of magic, isn't it?) To my shock,  I also discovered that my image of the... View more

YIKES! That's a heck of a price hike??!!

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Dec 01, 2014
  • 0 Comments
I received the following perfectly understandable email this morning: Hi Ann,  The jump in the digital price of a magazine was a little under 25%.  That is quite a lot.  As a senior on a fixed income, that's a significant increase for me.  As you know, I've been a regular buyer but I am not sure if I will continue... View more
I know the price for all 3 webinars is fairly high. Each one is pretty much a stand-alone course, though. Taking just Webinar 3, if you're familiar with my portrait book, would be very helpful. It really does include video that shows much more than you can possibly see in an in-person workshop because the camera is so close and unobstructed.  I have a fair amount of costs involved: equipment, software, assistants and I personally have put in over 200 hours of work in planning, filming, organizing, writing and editing just Webinar 3!X

Why are the Webinars expensive?

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Aug 09, 2014
  • 2 Comments
Someone emailed me saying my webinars were too expensive and that I'd sell many more if they were cheaper. My latest LIVE Webinar is priced at $44.99.  Although It's a live webinar, it also includes a DVD shipped to you, a PDF that includes the photo reference for the portrait project, a line drawing to trace, 28 step by steps,... View more

My first love is teaching

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Mar 13, 2014
  • 3 Comments
I had a horrible sinus infection and to make things even more interesting, the stomach flu too on the first day of the first colored pencil workshop I ever taught, about 20 years ago. I couldn’t cancel the workshop, because I couldn’t refund money I’d long ago applied to an electric bill or kid’s school shoes. I had to ride... View more

Do you ever eat all the frosting first?  Probably not...because then all you're left with is cake, and cake is pretty dry without that sweet frosting...

Which is why I save the face till last in a portrait!  Let me explain...

My method for portraits is to finish the background, foreground, clothing, hands, feet and hair first, before working on the face, and here are all the reasons why:

Frosting First?

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Feb 07, 2014
  • 1 Comments
Do you ever eat all the frosting first?  Probably not...because then all you're left with is cake, and cake is pretty dry without that sweet frosting... Which is why I save the face till last in a portrait!  Let me explain... My method for portraits is to finish the background, foreground, clothing, hands, feet and hair first, before working on... View more
If I were to paint this image today, it would probably end up closer to looking like this versioh. A higher range of values, more color saturation, smoother textures. Yes, it would take me much longer to finish than the original drawing.  Yes, it would take more courage to keep pushing the values darker and darker, but the end result would be worth the extra time and effort.
I am guessing that if I knew two things then that i know now, I wouldn't have quit when the piece was half completed.  X

Abandoned, not finished...

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Dec 27, 2013
  • 6 Comments
I heard a wonderful quote at a workshop in SC last year:  "A painting is never finished, it's abandoned."  Loved that!  I could instantly relate, particularly as a colored pencil artist working in such a painfully slow medium with one of the most painfully slow techniques. At some point in every portrait, I believe I do just decide to abandon... View more

Guess maybe I should start with the question before rushing to the answer...

Back when I made my living drawing children's portraits, I had a rule that I wouldn't accept any commissions for children under the age of 4.  When asked why, the reason I gave potential clients was that a baby or toddler rarely looks like "himself" until he's at least 4.  Since I hoped my portraits would be real heirlooms for their family, I encouraged them to wait until she was 4, at which point she would pretty much look like "herself".

Because they're too hard to photograph!!

  • Ann Kullberg
  • Oct 06, 2013
  • 3 Comments
Guess maybe I should start with the question before rushing to the answer... Back when I made my living drawing children's portraits, I had a rule that I wouldn't accept any commissions for children under the age of 4.  When asked why, the reason I gave potential clients was that a baby or toddler rarely looks like "himself" until he's... View more