Graying Out The Background

 

Still working on the mockingbird at the feeder

 

Once the blue back ground on my mocking bird drawing was dry I realized it was much too vivid. What you saw when looking at it, was the background, not the gray mockingbird.

 

The blue did not compliment, or complete the drawing, it competed or distracted from the subject. So it had to go.

 

But not completely. It needed to be grayed out. Rather than putting a wash of gray or black watercolor over it, or even a thin layer of orange (blue’s complement) I decided to use gray colored pencil, then blend it with the blue watercolor to mute but not eliminate the blue background.

 

While it will take hours to complete, it will be well worth the effort. The temptation to press down, to cover this large area quickly is great, but you have to resist it. A soft touch is also necessary. You will want to press down, using pressure to get the most complete coverage in one pass. This is not the best way. Slow and steady. Soft, even strokes will give the best coverage, most workable coverage.

 

For this background I did switch to Derwent’s color soft pencils, the Dove Gray. This is a medium toned warm gray. I like the color softs by Derwent because they are English pencils, a little thicker than my American or German made pencils. As such the cores are also a little thicker and not as subject to breaking as the thinner American and German pencils.

 

The background of gray went on fairly well. Watercolor does make a nice, medium toothed surface that takes the colored pencil much better than blank watercolor paper.

I am much happier with the overall effect, even though I have not yet finished blending in the background. You see the bird first here, which is what is important.

I am going to use a liquid medium to blend the gray over the blue for a smoother, more uniform look.

Colored Pencil Drawing of Magnolia Blossom

Beginning Again

You can see the white outlines on this drawing

Another Magnolia Painting

Starting the third magnolia blossom painting in colored pencil.

Quite a few people have asked how I develop a colored pencil drawing/painting. So I decided to walk you through the steps as I draw this one.

First step is to draw the layout on tracing paper. Why? because it is hard to erase on mat board, also hard to see a drawing on dark mat board and very easy to erase and move things around on tracing paper.

So the layout is done. I don't go into great detail here, just basic shapes, Do I like it? etc.

Inktense pigments have been "floated" into the basic shapes

Then I turn the tracing paper over. On the back I will scribble white colored pencil. When that is one. I will use drafting dots (or artist dots, depending on where to buy them) and fix the tracing paper to where I want it on the board, leaving myself a wide margin. This can be trimmed away when finished, but gives me a place to do any "practice" strokes and color combos if I need to.

With the white side down, I take a fine point pen and gently trace over my drawing, transferring the basic design to the mat board. I know a lot of artist who do this in detail, but I prefer to let the details develop and see what happens.

I always have the detail preliminary drawing to refer back to, but I am not married to it.

With these fine white lines I am ready to beginning building this colored pencil painting. You can see the faint white lines that will become leaves later on in the painting process. I will ignore this for the time being.

With this painting I started with Derwents Inktense drawing pencils. These are water soluble pencils that give good coverage with an ink pigment. A flat watercolor brush and water gets these flowing to give a good base coverage. This layer is pale, it is only the beginning.