Amanda Rose Rambo: Faceted Gem Masterclass

Faceted gem done in watercolor by Amanda Rose Rambo

This week I am honored to focus again on the Gem Queen, and my friend, Amanda Rose Rambo! This artist never stops producing quality products for teaching gem art. The above gem was done with watercolor! It’s one of the loveliest gem renderings I’ve seen done free hand.

In the artist focus I did on her a few months ago, I learned she had a Facebook group dedicated to those passionate about gem drawing. I immediately joined because well, her art is amazing. She frequently adds video tutorials and exclusive content just for her “Gem Ho’s”, and I am happy to be one. Amanda’s new Gem Coloring Book is getting ready for publication, and we’re currently having an exclusive coloring contest, the winner of which will have their art published on the cover, runner-up may be featured on the back cover. I’m totally focusing on gems for the next week!

In this post, I wanted to highlight her Faceted Gems, Master Class. It’s on etsy.com here. Amanda graciously allowed me participate in the master class and it is terrific! Below, find the art, both before the class and after, of several of Amanda’s “gem ho’s”, including myself!

Amanda’s Faceted Gems Master Class is a 3 part series of videos accompanied by a short ebook that includes links to the videos and material lists, as well as some really great coloring pages for practice. Amanda takes you through 3 different gems types using her technique for faceted gems.

I found the first video the most important as to the techniques used. I’ll admit, my first try was disappointing but, practice makes everything better and after the 3rd try they started to improve. The 2nd and 3rd parts talk about shading and highlighting incorporating different shapes, colors and facet configurations. These are my weakest areas for sure and I feel it’s intimidating to most people. Amanda and I have agreed to disagree about which pencils rule! I am a Prismacolor Premier Soft-core pencil lover (but I own both) and she swears by Faber-Castell’s Polychromos oil-based colored pencils. Amanda recently borrowed a full set of Prismacolors and used them exclusively for a month, so i can’t truly complain about her preference. For me, my Prismacolors are soft and smooth on like silk. Using odorless mineral spirits helps to dissolve the binding agents (here it would be wax or oil) and unlock the pigments on both but the Prismacolors seem much richer pigmented to me. This is an ongoing disagreement among colored pencil artists and one that wont be solved today! Here’s an example of both pencils in similar colors blended with odorless mineral spirits.

 

Here is my practice page for the gems covered in class. By the time I did the last green, I felt I was getting the hang of it. It’s not very good but given it’s copy paper (the cheap kind) which limits the amount of layering it would accept from the pencils, maybe you can understand.

Once I finished the videos and practice sheet I was ready for something more challenging.  Here’s my work in progress on one of the contest pages.  There is a huge difference in my confidence and understanding of how faceted gems are drawn. They attracted me but intimidated as well. I have put off learning this for some time and now wish I’d done it much sooner! Of course, now I want to learn the watercolor gem at the top!

I love Amanda’s tutorials because her presence is so relaxed it reminds me to have fun and take my time. I’m pretty pleased with this one, though the white lines are a true challenge for my shaky hands.

This next art is by colorist Sonya Griffin, also in Amanda’s Facebook group.

 

 

 

 

 

This last one will be stunning when finished! I love the ice blue gem!

Next is colorist Kim Henderson. She is really good at these!

Lastly, we have colorist Mara Lula, who definitely has a talent for these gems!

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all the artists in the Gem Ho’s Facebook group who allowed me to share their art with you!  Amanda’s Faceted Gems Master Class is a perfect course for the gem enthusiast!

Being in Amanda’s Facebook group is a great way to get advice, see exclusive content and videos and even receive discounts on her merchandise. I was also was given a sneak peek at some of the coloring pages from Amanda Rose Rambo’s newest book, Color a Creation, Gemstones Volume 5 being released soon at Amazon.com. These pages have an elegant look and lots of creative room to explore.

Here is a preview of some of the pages.

 

You can find Amanda Rose Rambo on facebook at facebook.com/vitruvianart

On Youtube at http://youtube.com/c/vitruvianart

On Etsy at etsy.com/shop/vitruvianart

Now newly on Patreon/vitruvianart

And on Instagram @vitruvianart

 

Dont forget to come back to see the contest entries! 

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Diva Challenge #334

The Diva was back in action this week using one my favorite tangles, N’Zeppel. Diva, Laura Harms at Iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com, was back live on Twitch Monday morning and I was lucky enough to finally catch her broadcast. Laura is great and relaxed on the feed, adding coffee and her playlist as she tangles. I enjoyed it and she inspired me to try something I never wanted to do, namely, color black the small areas between the stones (in my case). I like the way the webbed area looks, so I’ve never filled it before. For the colored stones, done with Prismacolor Premier pencils, i liked the black to emphasize the depth between. Check out the link to the Diva’s site and find links to the pattern step-out as well as a great video by Molly Hollibaugh, CZT and daughter of Maria Thomas. Molly’s a great artist and I love the video. (I highly recommend everyone try out one of the many videos out there done by Rick Roberts, Maria Thomas, founders of the Zentangle ® Method, or one with Molly. They have a way of teaching that is second to none, If you want to truly experience a Zentangle experience, check out their videos. A few can be found on YouTube. Look for Kitchen Table Tangles. These are great videos.)

 

Sorry, I digress! Here’s my diva challenge tile for #334. There’s an extra at the bottom because I’d already done one from Molly’s video the day before the Diva’s challenge and I LOVE N’Zeppel!

 

This includes the patterns Pixioze, and Eni Oken’s twisted ropes.

 Thank you for stopping by! See you all next week.

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Fancy Letters a la Illumination

Hello Everyone 🙂 happy Thursday! I needed a project today that would consume me for a few hours as letting go of my anger from yesterday has proven difficult. So today I chose a project I’ve been wanting to try out. I’ve seen a couple of tutorials on illuminated letters and it didn’t look too hard (😁 not so easy). I played with different styles and finally decided to just do my own version. My biggest concern is that no one will recognize which letters they are!

My supplies today:

• Black card stock (A4) 8.5 x Prismacolor Premier Soft-core colored pencils :pale sage, Apple green, peacock green, cloud blue, China blue, ultramarine, blue indigo and white.
• Sakura stardust dark blue
• Pen-touch silver pen
• Gamsol blending solution
• Tiny paper stump
• Ruler
• Hb graphite pencil

The design is 5 inches tall by 8.5″ wide. After penciling in the letters, I used the cloud blue pencil to outline the design and then fill all ribbon parts with cloud blue and the straight legs with pale sage. When working on black, layering over white or a light color helps bring out the color of each subsequent layer.

Next I layered apple green over the pale save and China blue over the cloud blue. Then added my first layer of silver with my Pen-touch.

At this time I take the peacock green and give the green parts a nice outline for some depth. Then I used my ultramarine to deepen the blue of the ribbon. Leaving it off any part that will be highlighted.  I used my white pencil to give a good light layer over the parts of blue that are highlighted.

The last steps involved using the indigo blue to shade the blue ribbon, then outlining the part of the blue that is NOT outlined in silver with the Sakura Stardust (glitter pen that uses ground glass in the ink instead of glitter. I did the partial silver outline to bring out the bar of the h. Now I’m hoping you know that’s an H!

The last thing I did is to use the silver Pen-touch to cover the outline again as I frequently make a mess in the lines.  (this is an accommodation for my shaky hands and not required.) And I used my hb pencil to shade the silver where 2 silver parts meet to show some contrast.

One fold later and spray with workable fixatif and call it done. 

My question to you, dear readers, is if the letters are recognizable or not? (okay,  it’s an  L and H 😁)

Leave me a comment on this because i want honest opinions!