Demonstration
May 1, 2017
Cristal Baldwin - Creative Colored Pencils

Euclid Art’s May meeting featured artist and illustrator, Cristal Baldwin, who drove all the way from London, OH, just west of Columbus, to demonstrate for us...over 2 1/2 hours. She was thrilled that we asked her to demonstrate Creative Colored Pencils at our meeting. She gets so excited about art and couldn’t wait to share her passion with us! We were thrilled to have her...thank you, Cristal, for coming all that way.

Over 35 members plus 2 guests enjoyed her demonstration and were very impressed with her talents.  For the demonstration, Cristal chose to use smooth black paper, even though lately she works more on textured paper, to do a drawing of a Lily. She likes using Prismacolor waxed based pencils, because they blend well....not student grade. Working from light to dark, she presses easy at first than harder as she layers color on the paper. It’s all about layers and the blending of colors, she says. She added more blue to the Lily than in the reference photo. On her completed works, she waits one day before removing the ‘bloomed wax’ using a kneaded eraser and then applies a matte spray fixative. Having finished the Lily sooner than expected, Cristal demonstrated drawing a face....sketching the eye for us.

Cristal graduated from Wittenberg University in 2004 with a bachelors degree in Fine Arts - Drawing and a degree in teaching...for her dad! Her paper addiction started while teaching English in Japan for six months. This is where she discovered 7-floors of art supplies at Itoya, Tokyo’s greatest paper store!

Cristal was a graphite artist at first and reluctantly moved into color. At the age of 10, she started drawing comic books. Now she is illustrating her third children's book. When asked what graphite pencils she likes best, she said Tombow drafting pencils....all of them, from Japan, because they hold a point.

She brought several of her completed works for us to enjoy. One especially catches your eye....Marbles reflecting on a mirrored surface. Her six year old son’s favorite is the Fruit Bowl. See more of her work at www.flyingfrogstudio.net.

We thank our hosts for the evening, Diane Marra and Betsy Poti, for creating a beautiful spring table filled with all kinds of goodies....the mile-high ham sandwich sliders from SweetBerry Market disappeared quickly! We also enjoyed ‘tulip’ cupcakes, brownie pie, hummus, cheese & crackers, fresh fruit and veggies.  The sign in the flowers says “Our Friendship is a Work of Art”.

We thank our hosts for the evening, Diane Marra and Betsy Poti, for creating a beautiful spring table filled with all kinds of goodies....the mile-high ham sandwich sliders from SweetBerry Market disappeared quickly! We also enjoyed ‘tulip’ cupcakes, brownie pie, hummus, cheese & crackers, fresh fruit and veggies.  The sign in the flowers says “Our Friendship is a Work of Art”.