A Drawing of Colorful Artichokes

This is my most current colored pencil drawing and it is a drawing of various artichokes. I have been interested in the various, shapes, sizes and colors of various artichokes and decided to create a long vertical drawing of a variety of artichokes. I worked on Legion Stonehenge white paper using Faber Castell Polychromos, Prismacolor Soft Core and Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils. 

My finished drawing will be 6x24" but my paper size is 7x25" because I will have to trim edges (scroll down to read more about that). I began by sizing my reference photos in PhotoShop and printing each one so that I could determine size and placement for my composition. As I was happy with the layout, I sketch in all the artichokes and some of the details on the paper with lead pencil. 

Next I began adding color, I like to start with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils as they are a harder pencil and work well for the first layers of color. I layer Prismacolor and Luminance pencils on top. I used Luminance pencils for all of the pinks and purples because they are the most lightfast. I did use three purples from my Polychromos box and Black Cherry from my Prismacolor collection. 

My finished piece is 7x25" and I will mount it on a 6x24" 2"-cradled Ampersand Claybord panel. You can use other brands of gessoed panels, I just happened to have the Ampersand panel in the correct size at my studio. I apply a sheet of Grafix Double Tack Mounting Film on the back of my drawing and – this is the tricky part – very carefully line up my drawing with the panel so when I stick it down, the image is straight and I have about a half inch of the paper border on all edges. This is tricky because once the sticky film touches the Claybord surface, it is not repositionable. 

I turn the piece face down and carefully trim the edges with a sharp knife. Some of the edges may be rough so I will carefully sand them with sandpaper. I also may need to touch up edges of the drawing. Next I spray two even coats of Krylon UV Resistant Clear and three coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish.

Below is my finished piece hanging on my studio wall. Not the best photo but you get the idea!