Blog Posts

Fun with Pastel Pencils and Clairefontaine Pastelmat

1/25/2021

I've been collecting pastel pencils for about a year now - an artist can never have enough art supplies, right? If ever there was a magical art tool, it must be the combination of Pastelmat paper and pastel pencils. I love detail and the level of detail I can get from these two tools is a delight. This is the perfect medium and surface for highly detailed animal art. I've been doing pet portraits and wildlife portraits. I am in love!

Here are a few of my recent works, as well as a couple of oldies. I have a Carolina Wren ready to start on the drawing board and a dog portrait commission.

Next blog post, I'll do a quick tutorial on the steps I used in painting Hobbes' portrait. I loved this pose (a photo my daughter, Tara, took.) We have two cats so once I get a really good photo of Bunsen, I'll do his portrait.

Tiger in Waiting, Portrait of Hobbes, 8x10

Who doesn't love baby ducks! I photographed this one and her siblings while vacationing at Partridge Cabins in Pittsburg, NH. Mom and ducklings spent some time hanging around the dock so I had lots of great opportunities to get photos. I love the reflections in this photo so I just had to paint it. Those feathers were a challenge, but once I figured out the pattern (there's always a pattern in nature), I got it done.

Duckling, 8x10

This is Fiona, a gorgeous, young Red Fox. She was rescued and lives at Millstone Wildlife Center in Windham. They were kind enough to allow me to use Fiona's photo to create this portrait. I see the occasional fox pass quickly through my yard or show up on my trail cam, but so far I haven't been able to get good photos for this kind of up close and personal portrait. Now I'm thinking about trying for a raccoon portrait - I love their paws and want to include them in any painting I do!
Millstone Wildlife Center does an amazing jog rehabilitating wildlife and educating people about wildlife.
https://millstonewildlifecenter.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MillstoneWildlifeCenter

Portrait of Fiona, 8x10

I end up taking tons of seagull photos when we go on vacation to Maine. I was able to take a bunch of this guy, or girl, when we were in Rockport. Doing a detailed portrait like this really makes you look at the details of your subject. I love the pale eye, the red mark on the beak and the greys and blues of the feathers. I enjoyed this one. I think Seagulls get a bad rap!

The Opportunist, Herring Gull, 8x10

This portrait of Sketch, my ever present shadow, was my first portrait using Pastelmat and pastel pencils. I fell in love with being able to add whiskers and whispy light hairs right on top of my dark colors, something that isn't possible with colored pencil. Building up layers is fun, and not nearly as time consuming as working in colored pencil. I might have hundreds of colored pencils for sale. lol Maybe not, you never know when you're going to need a colored pencil. I still love working in colored pencils. Certain subjects call for certain mediums, I think.

Sketch, (detail) 8x10

This beautiful Great Blue Heron was my first bird in pastel. I was lucky enough to get some wonderful photos of this young heron we came across while walking at Pickering Ponds in New Hampshire. He was standing on a rock right next to the path so we had to walk right by him to continue our hike. He was wary, but didn't fly away. He just moved to the edge of the water. Later when we returned on the path, he was back on his rock, and I was able to get even more photos. I'm sure he'll show up in more paintings.

Those feathers were a major challenge, but were an amazing education on painting feathers.

Juvenile Blues, Great Blue Heron, (detail) Sold

In conclusion, I have to say that I will be doing a whole lot more with pastel pencils and Pastelmat. Watch out Dick Blick, I'll be needing more pencils!

Wood Slice Holiday Ornaments

11/1/2020

I love painting ornaments. I've done glass balls in the past, but have moved to mostly wood slices in the past two years. I'll create a glass ornament on request, although I love the look of the wood slice ones now. Just about any nature themed subject might find its way onto one of my ornaments. Here's a peak at some of this year's designs.

My materials are pretty simple: wood slices, acrylic paint, brushes, modge podge for a sealant, twine, beads and ribbon. I use a gold bag for packaging and add a hand made paper tag. Each tag has my Hanko (a symbol I designed using my initials) and a small ink drawing. I love coming up with creative ways to package my ornaments to make them special.

The back of the ornaments is just as important as the front. I take as much are with the back of the ornaments in designing and painting text and images. I also leave some of the backs blank for personalization. I can add a name or a particular saying.

Pet Portrait Ornaments - I do quite a few commissioned portrait ornaments. I've done dogs, cats, horses, goats, mules, and pigs! It's always an honor to do a memorial ornament for a beloved pet.

This year I've also started creating ornaments that celebrate New Hampshire. I love living in this special area that is about 45 minutes from the sea coast, 90 minutes from the white mountains and 45 minutes from Boston. My Mt. Washington Summit ornaments are very popular and I am working hard to keep them in stock. Congratulations to all of you who have climbed that iconic mountain! I also love to paint New Hampshire's native wildlife and birds. I have so many wonderful memories of vacations in New Hampshire's great north woods and lakes region.

My ornaments are available in my Etsy shop (Link below) and at the Village Bean in Windham, New Hampshire. You can also email me at [email protected] or post a comment here. Thank you.

Susan Monty Fine Art Etsy Shop

Watercolor Nature Journal Tutorial, Part 1, Materials

10/26/2020

I've had so many people ask about my process for nature journaling that I thought it would be a great idea to do some tutorials in my blog. I love journaling and keeping track of all the animals, birds and plants that I see in my backyard and beyond. It's a wonderful way to learn about and honor the natural world. Since I started journaling I find that I notice more of what is going on in nature. I think it has made me realize how precious and beautiful our earth is and how much we need to pay attention to the natural world and protect it.

I tend to do most of my journaling in the spring and summer because I get so busy in the fall with portrait commissions and holiday ornaments. In the winter I'm hiding indoors, but a lucky glance out the window may reveal owls or foxes or even deer. Someday I’ll challenge myself to journal at least once a week for the whole year!

For this first post, I’ll tell you about the materials I use. It doesn’t really take much to create a nature journal. A stack of copy paper folded into a book and a #2 pencil can work in a pinch, but here are my favorite materials.

I usually use 5.5x8" Strathmore Visual Journals with 140# watercolor paper. I love the hard cover and spiral binding which lays flat when working. I like the texture and weight of this paper, too. A big plus for me is that it is cruelty free. Not all artists supplies are, so I'm careful to choose the cruelty free options. You can, of course use any brand or size of book, just be sure it is filled with watercolor paper. You can use 90#, but I find the #140 is much sturdier and doesn't buckle at all when I add washes.

I use a mechanical pencil with an HB lead for sketching in my pages. I like the light, thin lines it makes. I start with a pencil drawing before adding the ink and paint so I want to be able to cleanly erase my lines. I have a soft white eraser and a kneaded eraser for that.

For the pen work, I use a combination of Micron 05 pens or Ultra Fine Point black Sharpies. The most important thing to remember about your pens is that they are waterproof. You will be putting watercolor washes over the ink lines so you'll have ink bleeding all over your page if the pens are not waterproof. If all you have are non waterproof pens, you could reverse the process and add the ink lines after the watercolor washes have been applied and have dried.

When it comes to the watercolors themselves, once again I go for the cruelty free option. My favorites are Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors in tubes which I squeeze out into a palette with a cover. I also have a set of Kuretake pan watercolors that I love for the bright colors - great for cardinals and flowers!

Although I have about 10,000 watercolor brushes (lol, you really can never have enough art supplies!) I tend to use a #6 and a #8 synthetic round brush. I can easily do just what I need using just those two sizes. There are lots of other options and sizes, so use what is best for you.

There are a few other materials I keep on hand when I'm journaling. Paper towels for blotting brushes and cleaning brushes and your palette. I use a plain white plate as a palette to mix colors. I buy them in dinner and dessert sizes at the Dollar Store. They work great! I also have a roll of drywall tape. I use it for adding text. You'll see how in another post.

I like to decorate the front (and back!) of my journals. Washi tape works great to cover the rough edges of the cover. Stickers of any kind would work. Use your imagination and make your journal your own!

I hope this got your creative juices flowing. Gather your materials and in a future post I'll tell you about my step by step process to create a journal page.

Thanks for reading!!!

A Christmas Fable - Published!

10/16/2020

A CHRISTMAS FABLE has been published and is available on Amazon. It will be available on Barnes & Noble's website soon, and I will have a limited amount of signed copies. You can comment here or send me an email at [email protected] for information or to reserve a signed copy.

This project was a labor of love by the author's, daughter and granddaughter. I was delighted and honored to be a part of this book. Joan Carter always loved to read and write. She wrote A Christmas Fable later in her life and read it to her family on Christmas Eve. After she died her daughter and her granddaughter, Debbie Ryan, decided to have the story published in her honor. When Debbie was trying to find an illustrator, a dear mutual friend introduced us, and the rest is history, as they say. I loved the story and Debbie was looking for an artist with a love for nature and a style like mine. We clicked and the book became a reality for Debbie and her family. A wonderful way to honor her grandmother.

I learned so much doing this project. The illustrations had to adhere to very specific requirements for printing. I had to keep to a very strict size keeping in mind such printing terms such as bleeds and gutters. I had to be sure not to get any important figures too close to the edges or to the middle, and I had to plan a quiet area for the text. I truly loved working on these illustrations, but as an animal artist one of the biggest challenges was the people. The first few pages of woodland animals only were a breeze (well, sort of!), but eventually I had to sit down and do people. One of the things I did was to rely on family photos for poses and scale, etc. I was even able to add a tribute to my beloved dad by using him as the model for St. Nicholas. He would have loved that.

Here's a look at my process for creating each illustration. Debbie gave me a page by page break down of the text and some suggestions for what the illustration should show. I started with a quick sketch based on Debbie's information which I refined and changed as I worked. I drew many of the figures separately so I could move them around the page and change the relative sizes. When I was happy with my initial sketch, I transferred it to carefully sized watercolor paper. After making any last minute changes I took a deep breath and started to ink in the lines. Once that was done, I used making fluid to cover the figures so I could be bold and quick when adding the background washes of forest or desert and sky. After letting all of that dry, I peeled off the masking fluid and painting in the characters. The whole project took many months.

Debbie and I were so thrilled to have this book ready for the holiday season. It would make a lovely Christmas gift for a special child in your life. It's available now on Amazon and will be available at other retailers including Barnes & Noble very soon. Debbie and I have a limited number of signed copies. If you would like a signed copy, please comment here or send me an email at: [email protected]. THANK YOU.

Amazon

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Author

I am a fine artist specializing in animal art. I draw and paint whatever captures my eye, but animals will always be my favorite subject. I strive to capture a realistic, but artistic and expressive likeness of my subjects. I have a special fondness for horses and dogs, especially yellow lab mixes! Living in New Hampshire has given access to many beautiful and special wild creatures. Birds nesting in my backyard (including hawks!) and wild animals such as moose, deer, loons, and owls seen on vacation trips to the great north woods and White Mountains are a constant source of wonder and inspiration to me.

Commissions and custom orders are always welcome!

Nature Blog

Fun with Pastel Pencils and Clairefontaine Pastelmat

Wood Slice Holiday Ornaments

Watercolor Nature Journal Tutorial, Part 1, Materials

A Christmas Fable - Published!

Author

Archives

​​Nature Blog

Fun with Pastel Pencils and Clairefontaine Pastelmat

Wood Slice Holiday Ornaments

Watercolor Nature Journal Tutorial, Part 1, Materials

A Christmas Fable - Published!

Author

Archives

Nature Blog