A New Series, New Support and New Medium

Monet's Makeover #1
12x16 inches
Coloured Pencil, Winsor and Newton Watercolour Markers and Micron
Micron pen on Xerox Polyester Paper

 After quite a few failed attempts with my previous series on Tash, I have gone back to what I know, which is drawing quirky and colourful animal drawings. This series features Monet the mouse who adds colour, mischief and fun to the world around him. I have used a new surface for this drawing - the Xerox Polyester paper which is very similar in feel and application to drafting film, only it is a solid white colour and is heavier in weight.

This first image shows how I used the Winsor and Newton Watercolour markers to underpaint the tortoise.

It can be hard to get deep darks on the polyester paper using coloured pencils alone, and so for the head and feet of the tortoise, I used the Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent pens to underpaint.

Monet mouse was drawn in using mostly only coloured pencils (Polychromos, Pablos, Verithins, Derwent Studio).

One of the great things about the Polyester paper is that you can use a blade, abrasive eraser or Fibreglass brush to scratch out highlights and textures as I have done in the shell of the tortoise.

Stay tuned and hopefully, there will be more to add to this series :)

Who Stole my Ladder
12x12 inches
Coloured Pencil, Inktense pencil, black Promarker and
White ink highlights on Wooden Art Panel

Make a Wish
8x10 inches
Coloured pencil and Faber Castell Pitt Pens on
Watercolour canvas

A couple of more Trompe L'Oeil pieces and some big learning curves. After attempting and discarding Make a Wish 7 times, using a range of mediums, I finally decided that I had better complete at least one and move on. As you can see the black background is blotchy and whilst I had hoped that an application of varnish might resolve this issue, it actually made it worse. So what did I learn from all this trial and error and exasperation? I need to take a different approach and avoid doing large areas with black background, and this lead me to working on the wooden art panels, and this proved so much more satisfying and less frustrating, so I think this might be the start of a series. Hope these put a smile on your face :)

Getting your coloured pencils to pop on a black background

Full o' Beans
9x12 inches
Coloured pencil, Gouache and white ink on Black Mat Board

I have spent the last couple of weeks redoing this piece over and over. I love working on a black background, but get a bit frustrated with the way some of the coloured pencil colours, particularly the reds, lose their vibrance when working on a black background. I decided to underpaint with a white medium. Underpainting with white coloured pencil is quite ineffective and really doesn't add to the vibrancy of colours added in subsequent layers. So I experimented with white acrylic, Gouache, gesso, Colourfix primer and white watercolour. None of them gave me 100% satisfactory results. The jellybeans needed to look smooth and glossy and some of the more textured primers such as the gesso and colourfix made it hard to achieve that smoothness. The pencil didn't apply as well as I wanted over the acrylic or Gouache either. I have dabbled with the Golden Drawing ground, but find it a little too slick for coloured pencils and some of the vibrancy of colour is lost. So, I tried diluting the Gouache with the Drawing ground. The chalkiness of the Gouache was reduced with the slickness of the ground and vice versa. I still wouldn't say that this is the perfect solution, but it was the best of all the options I tried. Back to the drawing board to find that elusive magic formula!!! :)

ACEO - Sunkissed

Sunkissed

2.5 x 3.5 inches

Graphite and coloured pencil on drafting film.

One of the things I admire most in other artists is a wonderful imagination and the ability to create beautiful artworks without relying heavily on reference photos. This is an area, I feel I need a lot of development, particularly for illustration work. The Flower Folk and this ACEO are some of my early efforts which I hope will vastly improve over time. Whilst I still used some reference photos in these cases, I tried to avoid referring to photos too much. Commissions often require an artist to do a very close copy of one or several reference photos, and this is an area I find relatively easy. I believe to be truly artistic, it is necessary to extend beyond this, and whilst I'm not truly happy with any of my attempts over the last couple of weeks, I'm hoping with practice, to eventually produce work that is both creative and also to a standard I am happy with.

Flower Folk - Hydrangea

Hydrangea

6x8 inches

Coloured pencil on drafting film

Hydrangeas are round, jolly folk with gentle natures who like to come out with the warmer weather of spring and then hang around all summer, only to disappear once the cooler weather of Autumn drives them away. :)

Flower Folk - Rose

Rose

6x8 inches

Coloured pencils on drafting film

Rose can be a bit of a Prima Donna - she is beautiful when handled with care, but get on her wrong side and you may experience her thorny side!