Drafting Film

My horse on drafting film was put to one side while I worked on the Springer Spaniel montage and it appears that during this time it had been slowly disappearing under a thick layer of wax bloom. I got a bit of a shock when I saw it because drafting film has a cloudy/frosty look to it anyway and it looked like the colour had literally come off.

I very rarely get wax bloom when working on paper so looks like it could be more of a problem with the drafting film. I am still at the learning stage with this support and, as I said in a previous post, you can't layer like you can on paper and I've definately over layered which wouldn't help with the dreaded bloom.

So with my horse half finished what have I learned, apart from layering, and like about drafting film?

• I can finish a picture in half the time - OK, so this one has taken 14 hours so far but we (me and drafting paper that is) are just getting aquainted and know that in time it will be a lot quicker to work on.
  
• It is so easy to erase mistakes if you happen to make any.
  
• I like the feel of the pencil on film - almost creamy - and colours blend better.
  
• Colours can be added to the back of the film - a bonus if like me you find you can't add any more pencil on the front.
  
• The finished portrait/picture can be mounted on whatever colour support you feel best comliments it.

To give you an idea of how the coloured support can affect the mood and look of the finished picture I have scanned my horse with a few backings. First with black .....

With a bright red .....

A slightly less garish orange .....

And last but not least with a plain white, my favourite so far .....

Try to ignore the background (this will be finished at a later date and has scanned brighter than reality) and look at the colours in the horse and how they change. I've actually been working on her with a black support behind but prefer the white at this stage - all could change when its finished of course.