Monday, January 30, 2012

Face of Symmetry completed


Face of Symmetry

A4

Coloured pencils on Pastelmat

Here she is all finished. Fortunately I scanned it before applying fixative. Much of the colour did sink and darken with the fixative once I applied it, and even though I have touched it up quite a bit, the earlier scan was better - so lesson learnt - no fixative in future!!!

13 comments:

Mona Diane Conner said...

great work Karen! Sorry to hear about the fixative issue.

Unknown said...

Thank you Mona - I really did the fixative just to see what would happen. I can't really sell this portrait as I used an image off the web so it really wasn't an issue when the pencil sank away :)

Debra Keirce said...

Beautiful, Karen! And you work so quickly! I take a week one one eyeball...gotta work on that! LOL!

Unknown said...

You make me laugh Deb - you're one of the most prolific artists I know, but coloured pencils can be a bit slow sometime and this one actually took me much longer than I normally take with portraits :)

Unknown said...

Great job Karen. Love it.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Karen,and even with the colours darkening a bit, it is still fresh and vibrant.

Unknown said...

Have enjoyed discovering your work Karen. It's really beautiful! Are you not worried by not using a fixative that time will take it's toll on your work?

Cindy Lane said...

Just fabulous Karen!

I was sure it was a still from Aeon Flux. I am always amazed at how she was able to move the way she did, dressed the way she was in that flick.

Bugger about the fixative.

Unknown said...

Thank you heaps Dors :)

Thanks Vic - although this is the scan pre fixative, and the post scan definitely doesn't look quite as fresh.

Thank you Sheona - that's an interesting question. Pastelmat advertise that no fixative is necessary on their paper, but I assume they are talking about pastels in general. The main reason I used fixative was out of a concern for wax bloom. I usually work mostly with oil based pencils, where wax bloom isn't an issue, but I found the waxier pencils worked better on this surface. I might try watercolour pencils next time, where again wax bloom isn't an issue. If the artwork is framed behind glass, then there really shouldn't be a need for fixative.

I never saw her in Aeon Flux Cindy, but doesn't she have a body and face to die for!!! I always thought that would probably happen with the fixative anyway, but since I can't sell this artwork (not my image), I sprayed it just to see how much the colour sank away.

Sue Clinker said...

Just catching up after hols - this is stunning Karen. I love pastelmat but if using pastels I steam the work to fix it rather than aerosol fixative but that wouldn't work with coloured pencils.

Fixative use is always iffy on any paper I find - usually manages to alter some of the colours :-)

Unknown said...

Ah Sue - welcome back. I missed you while you were on holidays. Being the Pastelmat master as you are, there were a couple of things I wanted to ask you. Isn't it a fabulous surface to work on! Hope you had a super holiday :)

Unknown said...

Really stunning Karen, I love those eyes. Shes a beautiful lady but you really make her come to life.

Unknown said...

Thank you Sam and welcome back!!! :)