 Autumn Sampler in Colored Pencil (Finished) @Karen Wiesner I finished the Autumn Sampler Colored Pencil project today. I believe it's the best thing I've done to date. I actually framed it and put it up on the office wall, lol.
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Art Project: Autumn Leaves in Five Different Pencils B&W and Coloring Pencil Version, Day 19/10/2025  Autumn Leaves Using 5 Different Pencils Sketch @Karen Wiesner Today, in honor of the coming autumn with its beautiful leaves, I did a sketch using 5 different pencils of varying soft/hardnesses (2H, B, HB, 2B, and 6B). I wanted to treat each leaf a little differently and distinguish them from each other in an otherwise black and white sketch. I also started coloring them today. I started with a vibrant red, layering 4 different shades of red in order to make it stand out as the focus. I also plan to do a bright orange, yellow, and green leaves, with some intermix of the colors from one to the next. I'll post progress as I make it. I'm very pleased with the sketch and how the coloring pencil version is coming along.  Autumn Sampler in Colored Pencil (In Progress) @Karen Wiesner  Calla lily in coloring pencil @Karen Wiesner I sketched the calla lily long ago. Today, I used coloring pencils on it, adding leaves. A bit of a risk there, and I worried I'd ruin it, but I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered.  Calla lily in black & white @Karen Wiesner  Rosebud in Colored Pencil @Karen Wiesner I sketched this rosebud long ago. Today I did the colored pencil version of it.  Rosebud Sketch @Karen Wiesner
 Miss Hickory with Apple Black & White Sketch @Karen Wiesner  Corn Cob House in the Woods @Karen Wiesner This is from a favorite story of mine as a child. I love the amazing illustrations (lithography process that was black and white, never any color, which seems odd these days for a children’s book) and wanted to do a few of my own. TI love the lines and curves, the texture of the leaves and trees. The corn cob house was so much fun to draw--each texture and aspect.
 Watercolor Bouquet @Karen Wiesner 2025 I’m determined to figure out watercolor painting and to do it cheaply. I have the 99 cents kind I had in school as a kid. While neither of these are great, they were fun to do and practice is good. I learned some things. Hopefully want to continue this for a few days.  Watercolor Poppies @Karen Wiesner 2025  Copyright Karen Wiesner I was able to get some sketches in over the last month, these specifically intended for children's books. The results are mixed. I'll keep practicing.   Copyright Karen Wiesner  Copyright Karen Wiesner  Crooked Nature Photograph @ by Karen Wiesner We went to the UW-Madison Arboretum last weekend, and I took this photograph of a very crooked tree. I said to those I was with, “If this tree was sketched, no one would believe it was based on a real tree.” So I had to sketch it. I hope it looks real. I really like the texture. There’s no way to draw all those leaves, so this is what I think is a good way of suggesting leaves. I used an embossing tool in various sizes to “score” random shapes around branches and them draw a variety of interesting shapes over them. The branch boughs come out marvelously textured in this way. I made long, jagging, and uneven stripes along the tree to give it bark texture. When I filled in with pencil, I deliberately kept some of the areas white. I love doing trees and leaves like this.  Crooked Nature Art Sketch @ by Karen Wiesner  Zinnia in the Dirt Photography @ Karen Wiesner  Zinnia in the Dirt Sketch @ Karen Wiesner This year, for the first time, I planted seeds and had them come up. This first zinnia came up in a very dirty, messy place. I took a photograph of it, printed it, then sketched it. After that, I printed two copies of my sketch. The first copy, I rendered in watercolor. The second, I used coloring pencils. The dirt and debris was the hardest to deal with in each of the mediums. Not sure I was entirely successful, but in any case, I had fun working on this one photograph in a variety of ways.  Zinnia in the Dirt Watercolor @ Karen Wiesner  Zinnia in the Dirt Coloring Pencil @ Karen Wiesner  House in the Woods, Day 1 Sketch @ Karen Wiesner This sketch of a house in the woods was done over the course of two days. I did light lines to set the house and fences in place, then I worked on the forest around it along with the yard plants. Today I darkened all the lines and added details. I'm not sure how to do realistic water. Apparently the shore line at the bottom was supposed to be horizontal without any vertical to help achieve that. I really like the technique I used for creating texture in the plants. It's very hard to see in the (bad) photo I took of the sketch though, so this really doesn't do it justice. Another one you have to see it in person to get the full effect. I loved doing this. Loved the straight lines and the forest texture. I want to do more like this next week.  House in the Woods, Day 2 Sketch @ Karen Wiesner
Some "vintage" sketches I did. Kids are very hard. They have big heads and no necks so they look like small adults. But I also feel like these two sketches are a little like the Little House kids book illustrations (though, of course, nowhere near as good). I'm enjoying these.
I’m easing back into art and chose a simple, coloring pencil project. Started out promising the first two days but I didn’t end up loving the end product the final day. In any case, it did give me back my eagerness to return to practicing art.  Cat Day 1 by Artwork @ Karen Wiesner  Cat Day 2 by Artwork @ Karen Wiesner  Cat Day 3 by Artwork @ Karen Wiesner |
AuthorWelcome to Karen's Quill, the blog of author Karen Wiesner. In addition to being a popular writing reference instructor and writer, professional blurbologist and freelance editor, Karen is the accomplished author of nearly 150 titles published in the past nearly 30 years, which have been nominated/won 134 awards, with 9 more releases contracted for spanning many genres and formats. Archives
March 2026
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