I have finished the drawing so here is the second installment of the Anatomy of the Drawing.
Background
I decided to do a dark background for this painting as the flowers where so light, and went for complimentary colours to make the painting zing. As the main colour of the flowers are yellow I went for a muted purple background. I never use just one colour and this background is made up of dark greys (darkest at the bottom prisma colour cool grey 90% up to 50%), a great colour called dark grape and dark purple.
The background under painting showed through too much for me so I used a solvent (orange zest) to dissolve the colours and give a more even tone and then went back over it again in pencil. I don’t like to use solvent often as it takes away all the life of the pencil strokes, but occasionally when I want better coverage or am trying to fix a problem I find it very helpful. Here is a picture that shows how the solvent changes the work.
Outline
My last step is to outline the picture. I do this to really emphasis the forms and make the shapes and colours pop. I also really like a good outline, always have, ever since art school which drove my lecturers crazy. It gives my work a graphic, print quality that I enjoy.
I used to use fineliner pens, put the wax in the coloured pencil would clog them up very quickly and kill them. So I am now using old-fashioned nib pens and my Sennelier Ink. This is sooo much better and I love to use these lovely pens, such a link to the past and the lines are much more alive.
So there my friends you have it. This is my process in making my art, I hope you enjoyed your second instalment and others are also inspired to share their processes , it is so interesting and informative to see how others work.
Karen