Deb Stanley: Colored Pencil Virtuoso and Nature Lover
Not many can wield a colored pencil quite like Deb Stanley of Great Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Her photo-realistic colored pencil drawings catch many an eye on social media, amassing thousands of followers. Many of her drawings are indistinguishable from actual photographs whether they be of wildlife, nature, desserts, or jewels. I’ve tried to draw realistic gems before and it’s extremely difficult to get the colors and reflections just right—so this is a very impressive skill to me!
The fact that Deb is able to achieve such depth in her work is quite amazing considering she has been blind in one eye since birth. “I’m not able to see 3D or have any appreciation of what it looks like. My falcon portrait called ‘August’ was a major turning point in this process. His beak in my photo was blurred and I decided to draw it with the blur. This and the fact that he was on a much larger scale helped with the realistic portrayal.” There is no doubt in my mind that successfully creating artwork with this level of realism isn’t something that just anyone can accomplish. Deb says “I like details, it’s the way I’m wired. As I have progressed my work has become more realistic, I’m a keen photographer and I mostly work from my own references so I’m free to tweak colours and details to suit me.”
Her great instincts with focus and lighting have added to the realism of her artwork. The fact that she photographs her own subjects allows her to have all of the reference material she needs when she starts working on a new piece. “ It’s rare for me to work from one photo so photographing my own subjects is a huge help when putting a composition together. I have noticed recently that I’m becoming more aware of light and shade and I’m sure this has gone a long way to help with my recent progress.”
Deb lives in a beautiful area (seriously just google image search Great Malvern… it’s gorgeous) and also luckily close enough to a few animal sanctuaries! “My work reflects my experiences, currently I’m drawing big cats after a photography day at The Big Cat Sanctuary last year and the next theme I will be working on will be wolves following another photography day last month at the UK Wolf Sanctuary.“ Yes.. I’m totally jelly!
Looking at Deb’s Facebook page, it’s clear her favorite medium is colored pencils. She says she prefers Faber Castell Polychromos. While I have always been a huge Prismacolor colored pencil fan for their soft silky smooth application, I know tons of people actually prefer Polychromos due to their better ability to blend multiple times. This is a really interesting article describing the difference and the composition of each brand which I highly recommend reading before you purchase hundreds of dollars worth of colored pencils!
She hasn’t always used colored pencils as her main medium. In fact, she started life as more of a crafter than anything else. “I’ve always loved art and crafts, my family owned fabric and wool shops so I was surrounded by colour and patterns from very early on. Creating art as a finished item rather than using it as a way to plan out craft projects was something I came to much later….30+ years later! Looking back I think the turning point happened when I took up cross stitch, I enjoyed drawing out and creating designs and I started moving away from craft towards art.” Would you believe this woman that creates fantastic colored pencil works has not been doing this her ENTIRE LIFE? The skill level she is at surely suggests she has been dabbling in this medium since she was born!
Deb then continues to reveal a tragic struggle that many an artist and cat lady has had to deal with during the creative process. “I happened to see a Bob Ross programme and thought I’d give oils a go, this hobby only lasted for a short while, I found that due to family commitments using oils with the cleaning up required and the space needed it wasn’t practical, the final straw was when one of my cats walked over a drying piece spreading paint on furniture and carpets.” Luckily we all love our cats, and it sounds like they were just trying to help her find her true calling! “I had been using coloured pencils to plan out my oil paintings and these drawings were getting more detailed so I thought I’d see if I could produce a complete artwork using pencils alone, shortly afterwards the oils hit the bin and I haven’t looked back.”
What is Deb Stanley up to this year? Well.. shame on me.. I interviewed her months ago and I’ve been so busy some of her goings on have since passed… but look what she just told me yesterday! “It’s a bit out of date now though since writing I’ve won an award, The David Shepherd Award at The annual Exhibition of The Wildlife Art Society International for my drawing of Athena Emerging. Just so you know” CONGRATS, DEB! If you live near her and admire her artwork, you can visit her home to see her works in progress and chat towards the end of August! “At the end of August I will be opening my home to the public for the Worcestershire Open Studios event for 4 days, people will be able to see my work in progress and chat. It was a great event last year and it was great to meet people that I’d only previously spoken to via Facebook. ”
I originally found Deb Stanley on Facebook, but you can also check out her website and follow her on Instagram and Twitter!