Beach Stones

I've started working on a new large colored pencil piece, it is going to be a vertical 18x24" and I'm working it on Rtistx 300 board. I chose that surface because I wanted to work on a white board in which I could use solvent and also varnish at the end. I like the Rtistx because it can stand up to both. For this piece I am using a mixture of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils and my stiff bristle brushes to burnish the pencil pigment into the paper.

The picture at the top is of just the bottom of the beginning of my drawing. The photo beneath is the reference photo for the bottom area. I am using three reference photos of the scene for the entire 18x24 drawing, the middle reference photo will be of smaller, more distant rocks and the top of the photo will be mostly the waves and foam washing over the rocks. I couldn't find one photo of the scene that I liked so I am going to combine at least the three and work the water into the rocks using some of my imagination.

I began drawing the rocks with three Prismacolor pencils: Indigo Blue, Warm Grey 50% and Warm Grey 70% working in the darks with indigo and parts of the other rocks with the grays. I'm working this way to hopefully simplify the drawing before adding all of the other colors. It has already taken me many hours to get this far so I think this drawing is going to take me a while. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on this drawing.