28cm x38cm, Pencil on Mellotex
Copyright Laura Hardie 2010
Drawing number 3 (still trying to think of a title for this one) is now finished and can hopefully join Devotion and Patience at an exhibition in aid of Cancer Research here in Edinburgh later in the year. I will give details of this nearer the time for anyone who might be interested in going along.
My painting plans didn’t quite materialise after a disastrous start saw my attempts end up in the bin followed quickly by any enthusiasm I had left for it! Painting isn’t alien to me having done many in the past but it’s been a good few years since I’ve used my brushes and I found the whole experience frustrating. I just need to get used to them again and make paint like me. More patience would help too! I’ve not given up and I am going to go back to them as believe it or not I really do want to paint.
Still in ‘experiment mode’ I thought I would try coloured pencil on gessoboard instead and, after a bad start where I hated everything about the combination, I’m starting to like it. Saying this I’m not sure I’ll attempt another drawing on this surface simply because it doesn’t suit my way of working. I like to build up my values and tones through many layers of pencil and you can’t do that with gessoboard – I can get three, maybe four, layers at most. I also like my detail and couldn’t get as much of it in as I’d like which I thought was a good thing to start with as I’ve often talked about ‘loosening up’ and being less detailed but my hands say different. I guess you draw the way you draw and that is that.
Reflection
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2010
5 comments:
Dear Laura,
Breathtakingly beautiful... you did magic again!
Cheers, Sadami
Please don't stop with your drawings. I've been a secret lurker for years and I love your doggies....!!
These labs are absolutely beautiful.
I've been drawing on Mellotex too but couldn't quite get the hang of its smoothness.
Your work is lovely:)
KathrynXX
Dear Laura,
Sorry to bother you, could you please provide one more real close up shot where you still had white areas and started to shade for black hairs (down the lower part of neck in the black lab when it is looking up picture).
Also,how do you prevent the graphite shine? Does it affect your drawings at all (looks like it didn't)?
It would help me to understand.
Thank you,
Brilliant as always... so much detail in those full body poses!
Thank you Sadami, your too kind:-D
Hi Kathryn and thank you:-D It's hard to believe sometimes that I've been blogging for over 4 years now - and so much has happened in that time!
It took me some time to get used to the smoothness of Mellotex too but I'm liking it more and more.
Hi Mark, you're not bothering me at all - I'll get a close-up shot for you and put it in my next post. Hope it helps:-D
I think it's impossible to avoid graphite shine and you will always get it especially in the darkest areas, but I've never found it to be a problem if I'm honest.
Thank you Brenda - I am a bit of a detail freak:-D
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