Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Lady and The Prince - and a Happy New Year

The lady and The Prince

8x10 inches

Inktense Pencils and Faber Castell Pitt Pens on Acrylic Paper

Firstly, a very Happy New Year to everyone and I wish you all a year filled with good health, peace and happiness!!!

A very big thank you to Juno Kughler http://junokughler.com/, an amazing coloured pencil artist, who kindly shared some of her reference photos for other artists to use, including the one of this gorgeous frog.

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while, would know how much I love to experiment with different mediums. I have had my Faber Castell Pitt Pens for a while now and always suspected that they could be a joy to use, if used on the right surface, but hadn't really spent a lot of time exploring which ones would bring out their best qualities. Unfortunately, they really aren't suitable on drafting film at all, because even once the ink has been left to dry, it still wipes straight off the film. I would like to try the pens on the Dura-lar wet media drafting film to see if this gives the ink more staying power. I also found that regular paper seems to negate the wonderful blending qualities of the pitt pens as the ink dries a little too quickly for my liking.

I spent a lazy day last week pulling out all sorts of different surfaces to see how the pens responded and found that the acrylic paper was an absolute joy to work with. I would like to find a brand of acrylic paper that has slightly less texture (I'd be keen to hear if anyone could reccommend one). The one I'm using is the Canson, which has a texture similar to linen canvas.

I actually started this drawing using the inktense pencils and was only using the Pitt pens for the darker areas, but then found that I could achieve a combination of textures and shades, by either layering the pitt pens over the top of each other, using a wet brush to blend the ink before it dried, or softening edges and blending colours using the Tria blending marker.

I must admit I feel really excited about exploring this combination of mediums further. The colours are vivid and bright, but it is also possible to achieve soft, muted colours. I would love to hear of anyone else's experiences with these pens, and in particular different surfaces that you might have tried :)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy New Year Karen.
Thanks so much for your tips on the Pitt Pens. I also have a set that I have not used yet so I am interested to read about the surfaces. I will also do some research into papers suitable.
Sounds like you have had a great week..Good way to start the year and I hope it continues in a successful way for you and your art.
Great job on the Frog. Yes Juno is a great artist and is so generous to share.

Cindy Lane said...

Wow Karen - this has that awesome Hyper Reality look about it as the colours are just jumping off the page. Intense indeed!

Glad to see you playing and exploring with all sorts again.

Here's to many exciting discoveries in 2012!

Unknown said...

Happy New Years to you too Dors!!! I saw your artwork on the Grafix site - did you enter their competition as well - that lizard artwork has always been a favourite of mine!!! :)

Happy New Years Cindy - isn't it lovely to have some time to play!!! Hope this year brings you all the happiness and success you deserve and really look forward to seeing what you get up to!!! :)

Cindy Lane said...

Forgot to say - Love the new profile pic!

Unknown said...

Thank you Cindy - I needed a fresh photo for Hachette Marketing and poor Steve had to take about 20 photos before we could find one half decent!!! :)