A Work in Progress on Vellum

 I just realized that I haven't posted any work in over a month. I'm not quite sure what happened but I went away then came back and proceeded to get a cold and respiratory virus that hung on for about two weeks. When breaks like that happen, I find that I lose momentum and vigor for my artwork, particularly what piece I'm working on. I get out of the "zone" and it can take awhile to get it back. In the meantime I start doing things like cleaning the condo, cleaning the studio, cooking; all sorts of daily activities until I can get back into the the right frame of mind. Anyway, thankfully, I'm back and finishing up this piece.

As I mentioned in the last post about this piece, I am working on two pieces of DuraLar vellum and when I put them together, the top sheet is a bit more translucent so the drawing on the second sheet (behind) isn't as sharp as I would like it. In the top photo you can see how I've taped the two sheets together at the top and I keep laying the top sheet down to check for alignment, colors and values. On the bottom sheet of vellum, I had drawn the bottom of the carousel in black and the shadows in Prismacolor Black Grape. However, when I put the two sheets together, the shadows looked dull and gray so I erased the black and purple shadows. The vellum is easily erased with a kneaded eraser and then I cleaned up with a white eraser.

I am finding that if I use very bright colors on the bottom sheet of vellum, it translates much better when I put the two sheets together. I decided to use Prismacolor Peacock Green for the bottom of the carousel and Ultramarine Blue for the shadows.

Here are the two sheets of vellum as the drawing appears now. My next step is to bring parts of the background images forward by drawing them on the top sheet of vellum and letting other parts of the merry go round fade into the background. Hoping to finish today!