Portrait or Predator?28cm x 28cm
Coloured Pencils and Pan Pastels on Wood.
Here I opted for a slightly different style of Trompe L'Oeil and this time the frame part was primed with the colourfix primer as usual, whilst the inside portrait was primed with gesso. I did some research on coloured pencils on gesso and found very few samples of this combination and so assumed that the gesso would not be all that receptive to the pencil. Actually it was amazingly receptive and beautiful to work with!!! Fantastic for getting fine detail and also fantastic for smudging the pencil around. All the background was done first with Panpastels which also work fabulously on the gesso, followed by some smudged pencil work. I will definitely try this combination of media again.
14 comments:
Brilliant job Karen. What a combination. Glad it worked for you. The Kitty looks so soft and fluffy. and love the mouse.
Love it.
Beautiful and thank you for sharing your technique, sounds interesting.
Thank you so much Dors and Pauline - I love hearing about other artist's techniques Pauline, so hope my experimenting might be helpful to someone :)
Greta combination Karen, both medium and subjects!
Thank you heaps for your lovely feedback Sam!!! :)
Just beautiful! I love the title too! You always leave me awed, Karen!
So very beautiful. I've been working on gessoed surfaces too and it's surprising how well it accepts CP, although I do struggle to get the surface smooth even with a foam applicator. I'd love to know what wood you use?
I do love your mice pieces. ("Meeces to Pieces" - who said that?)
The puss is just fabulous - the eyes definately have it!
You are building a stunning collection girl!
(very suitably, the word verification is: mi cat)
Very interesting technique, Karen. I love how you are always trying great new ways of working, and turning out such beautiful images! Thanks for sharing them!
Thank you so much Sherry (love your new avatar!), Gillian, Cindy and Barbara for all your wonderful comments - they put such a smile on my face.
Gillian, I pretty much work on whatever I can get my hands on - I initially found some pine bread boards and worked on those, then some bamboo breadboards, also tried rubberwood, and I have a fellow who will custom cut pine panels for me. I'm not fussy, so long as the grain is not too coarse.
Love this one Karen.....so creative and fun....curious to know whether you used clear gesso on the center piece or white ? I have used white on some mdf wood pieces and then sanded back a few times before using CPs, but not sure if I like it or not. I know Alma Lee has done some great pieces this way.
Thank you Vic - I tried the clear gesso, but found it had too much tooth. I did use the white gesso here. I'm working on a miniature at the moment and have primed the whole piece in white gesso, and have to say I'm absolutely loving it because it allows for really fine detail. Isn't Alma Lees work inspirational? Oh to be that creative - the colours she uses make my heart sing :))
This looks really good Karen. It does have lots of life to it and your cat is very fluffy. I didn't realize that you could use pencil on gesso, it does make sense though when you think about it. Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure Wendy and thank you for your encouraging words!!! :)
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