Drawing with Colored pencil-mixed media

A Tale Of Two Paintings

 

Started a third colored pencil painting to complement the magnolia paintings. Some format for a different flower. While the magnolias are huge, the third was a much small bloom, but still dramatic. I wanted to do a bee balm, a flower many people react to more as a weed than as a valuable plant. However, it was to be on the same dramatic scale as the magnolias.



sketch in WC Pencil drawing 1

But unlike the magnolia flowers I started with white board not dark green. I thought I would work more with the watercolor back ground than with the other two.

I started with a lot of enthusiasm, but as I went on, I began to think I had made a mistake.

Especially when I got to the watercolor background I was not very happy with it.

 I worked and worked and worked, but still felt dissatisfied.

So I started over on the green board with a white colored pencil drawing. This is much more like the first magnolia drawing and gave the more dramatic effect, I thought, that I wanted. But I still worked on both drawings, and as it went along, the first one developed independently from the first two.



Second start.

While it does not necessarily relate to the magnolia drawings, it is beginning to stand on its own. Each piece has its own merits. Neither is perfect. Art does not need to be perfect.

That is not the point. But does it convey what you are going for?

Each of these starts with the same premise, and both break the "don't center it" rule.



This is intentional. It does make for a little discomfort in viewing which I think creates the "look at me" look. These drawings focus on bee balm just after peak. When the flower is starting to fall apart, and the seeds are just starting to form at the base of the blooms' tubes. While they appear very detailed, they are not, with only suggestions of the future seeds. The heads are darkening and the leaves are beginning to loose the green color, revealing the actual pigmentation of the plant. Now the second, with the darker background was more what I envisioned, but after both were done and matted and framed. I think the 1st one, mistakes and all is the better picture.  What do you think?


Green background, finished



1st drawing with washed in background.

 

 

Second Magnolia Drawn and Polished

Finally finished my last magnolia drawing.

I thought I had finished it last week, but the more I looked at it, the more I was dissatisfied with it.

It was not bad, just not finished the way I thought it should.

Still did not have that bright contrast between the white blossom and the dark green leaves.

Even the "final" polish did not give it the strong look I wanted, so I sat and stared at it.


Evaluating your own work is one of the hardest things you will ever do.

Looking critically at it, I saw the shadows just were not strong enough. Now, this is a white flower, and my left brain kept telling me, "its white, what do you want?" But it was not 100%.

I did work on intensifying the white, but it just did not come together. So I decided to attack the shadow.

Using 70% cool gray on the bright sunny white was one of the hardest things I ever did. But it was necessary. Without the darker shadows, the white just did not look white enough.

So something to remember, White is never white! It is the most reflective color and will always pick up its surrounding color and will totally change with contour and shadows.

Now, with an additional 5 layers of blended color, the work more closely resembles what I saw in my head.

Working With Powdered Graphite

New purchase:  a jar of    powdered graphite.

For me a new idea.




Now what to do with it?

Start with a simple sketch, but soon that jar of graphite powder was calling me. A small round watercolor brush and a large rough boor flat and I was starting to experiment.





Starting with a face with powdered graphite.

 

I did use more than powered graphite, I used a 6B pencil to find the placement of the eyes and chin, and lightly sketched with a 2H pencil.



I have a stump of a 4B woodless pencil. I find this useful when I am thinking a lot and sketching. As well as my supply of graphite sticks. These are squares of graphite. These when used on their side give uneven marks, which I used for the foliage. When you use these, you cannot use them like conventional pencils, you need to change the way you hold them and this often changes the way you approach your work. This can lead to both a looser composition and surprisingly greater control.





Finished Sketch

A fat stump was used to pull some of the graphite around where I wanted it. This is very much a combination of drawing and painting.

While nothing I would considered "done" it is not bad for a first try. I can see the possibilities in this looser form of graphite.