Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Spinning in Circles


After several months and much thought I have finally finished this colored pencil drawing on two layers of Grafix DuraLar translucent vellum. To recap my previous posts, my original idea of working on layers was challenged by the fact the vellum is more opaque than I expected. I found I needed to add bright color to the bottom layer which would end up toned down when showing through the top layer. I also added color to the background horses and let them fade into the back. I'm happy with this piece now that it is finished and learned from the challenge of working on the multiple layers of DuraLar. Please read my previous posts for info on my process. I had hoped to finish the drawing with a fixative to keep the pencil intact just in case, however, when I test sprayed both workable fixative and Lascaux fixative on a scrap piece of vellum, it made small dots of spray on the vellum. I searched the internet for info but didn't come up with anything. If anyone has any experience with fixative on vellum, I'd be interested to know.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

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!