On the drawing board

Zara
21cm x27cm, Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I work from photos (as if you hadn’t guessed:)) – I have to as I've yet to come across a dog, or any animal for that matter, who will happily pose for up to 30 hours or more while I complete their portrait. But I have to admit to being very particular when it comes to choosing those that I will work from, as I’m sure those who have worked with me in the past will testify. I’m not saying I haven’t worked with bad photos because I have, many in fact when I first started out, but ultimately this shows in the finished portrait hence my ‘fussiness’ and insistence on good photos to start with.

This week I had planned to start a portrait of four Collies but on printing out the agreed reference photos I really wasn’t completely happy with two of them so decided to ask for more. I do find it hard if I continually have to ask for more photos when they’re unsuitable – I almost feel as if I’m being a pain – but it’s so important to get this stage right and hopefully the finished portrait makes all the extra effort worthwhile.

So with the Collie portrait on hold until next week I had the chance to work on my own portfolio, which I’m slowly trying to build up between commissioned pieces, but was disappointed to get next to nothing done – too much procrastinating and not enough action. I had the perfect opportunity too as my daughter was off to London on a school trip for the week giving me plenty of me time. Sadly the only thing I managed to do was to finish the above drawing of Zara. I started this back in February and you can see a couple of work in progress shots here and here.

At this stage I’m undecided what to call this piece but I do have a few ideas running round my head that I’ll no doubt spend some time pondering over.

Portrait finished

Skye
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I put the last finishing touches to Skye this morning and now feel I’ve reached the stage where I’ve done all I can to this portrait so I’m officially calling it finished – further to approval of course.

Despite my reservations with the choice of reference photos for both dogs – there were some discussions early on and they were not the ones I would have personally chosen - I think they work well together. Maybe I should point out that I am terribly fussy when it comes to reference photos:)

And not forgetting the finished portrait showing both dogs together.

Keira and Skye
16x12 Coloured Pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Slowly moving on

I’m still working away on the double portrait of Skye and Keira which, as seems to be the norm these days, is taking longer to finish than I originally planned. I have now made a start on Skye as you can see in the following stages.

A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Another couple of days should finally see this one complete.

Coloured Pencil Tutor required

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’ve not been feeling too good these past few days so my pencils have been lying dormant gathering dust while I’ve been moping around feeling sorry for myself. I did manage to finish Keira before all this however, which I’m pleased about, but will need to play catch up for the rest of the week to get this portrait finished in time.

Now for something a little bit different and exciting, at least for my blog anyway. Melanie Phillips who currently tutors with the London Art College made me aware of a vacancy they currently have there and I would like to do my bit and hopefully bring this to the attention of any coloured pencil artists out there. The London Art College specialises in providing tuition by distance learning art courses and are currently looking for a tutor for their Coloured Pencil Course. The details are as follows…

Tutor Required for London Art College Distance Learning Course

There is a vacancy for a distance Learning Course Tutor for the Coloured Pencil Certificate Course. This is a unique opportunity to work with students from the comfort of your own home or studio. The successful applicant will eventually be able to put their mark on the course and make it their own. The post requires a few hours per week in tutoring, which will start gradually as you take over the new enrolees. The tutor will be required to have some general computer skills. Previous experience in tutoring may help but it is not necessary.

This is open to UK applicants only.

Application - Stage 1
If you are interested in taking over the tutoring post for the coloured pencil course please entitle your email 'CP Course tutor vacancy' with the following.....
Please include a few high res examples of your coloured pencil artwork,
A brief background of your experiences / education /age range
Tutoring experiences if any,
Whether you have a full / part time job or work as an artist full / part time.
Please email this to Melanie Phillips - petportraitartist@gmail.com

Application - Stage 2
In the second stage of the application, the successful applicants will be asked to produce a sample critique. An excerpt of a previous students critique will be given to each applicant to show what we are looking for. You will be given three pieces of artwork to critique and this can be then emailed along with your feedback, length of time the critique took and any other comments you may have.

Good Luck!

For further information, or to submit an application please email Melanie Phillips - petportraitartist@gmail.com

It’s a great opportunity I’m sure you’ll agree and I personally wish all the best to those who apply.

Portrait update

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

A couple more stages showing Keira coming together. I should have her finished over the weekend and then it’s onto her companion Skye, the Springer Spaniel.

Start of a new portrait

Keira
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

My next portrait is of two dogs – a Springer Spaniel and a crossbreed, although we’re not sure what cross exactly. Her owners affectionately refer to her as a ‘Heinz 57’ and have to admit that was a new one to me.

I’ve made a start on Keira (the Heinz 57) simply because she is on the left of the composition and I like to work left to right. This way I can avoid ‘smudging’ my work. At this stage I’m simply laying down my base colours and building up my layers to create depth, working light to dark. The ear is pretty much finished and I’m now jumping between the eyes, nose and head working a little bit here and a little bit there until it all comes together. Still a way to go before that happens though.

Springer Spaniel finished and Poll results

Thistle
12x10 Coloured Pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

While adding the final touches to Thistle I suddenly remembered about the poll I ran back in March and how I’d totally forgotten to post the results of this on my blog - oops. I do have a terrible memory which only seems to get worse it seems.

Just to refresh your memory (and to update any new readers who haven’t a clue what I’m on about) I was becoming increasingly unhappy with the results I was getting when scanning my drawings, especially those completed using graphite pencil, and wanted to do something about it. I was trying to find the best way to get images of my artwork and was interested to find out what other artists thought and what their preferred method was. See my original post here.

While I’m not sure word for word what my original question was, having noted only the results when the poll closed (a lesson learnt here to write the question down as well), I do know I was asking how you obtained a good image of your art work. Here are the results and I‘d like to say a huge thank you to all those who participated. From the 23 votes recorded…..

• 11 (47%) use a scanner.
• 9 (39%) photograph their drawings/paintings indoors using natural lighting.
• 4 (17%) photograph their drawings/paintings outside.
• 2 (8%) photograph their drawings/paintings indoors using special lighting.
• 2 (8%) have their artwork professionally scanned.
• 1 (4%) has their work professionally photographed.

Overall, photographing artwork whether indoors or outdoors, with or without special lighting turned out to be the most popular method, which did surprise me a little – I assumed that most artists scanned their work. Saying this scanning did come a close second.

I do believe however that whatever method is used that the majority of work happens post scan or photograph in Photoshop. Being able to correct and ‘fine tune' images using this software is great and only wish I knew more about it – or at least lived with someone who does.

I’ve experimented a bit with photographing my drawings and each time return to my scanner as I personally feel I get a better result this way. And now, thanks to a fellow artist, that I know how to get a white background using Photoshop without affecting my drawings I’m going to stick to this method for now.

Springer Spaniel update

Thistle
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

The school holidays are now over so hopefully I can spend more time on my drawings. Spent a good part of yesterday just working on Thistle’s ear and only managed to complete half of it which really puts into perspective how slow working with coloured pencils can actually be.

Start of a new portrait

Things have slowed down recently behind the drawing board as I’m just not putting in the hours that I should be just now with the result that everything is taking that bit longer to complete. The school holidays haven’t helped as I never seem to get much done during them anyway, but mainly it’s just a simple case of life getting in the way……… again. Hopefully next week things will be back to normal and I’ll be managing my time better.

I’ve made a start on my next portrait, which happens to be a beautiful Springer Spaniel called Thistle. Here are the first couple of stages.

I was made aware of a new website this week called Colored Pencil Central which you might find interesting, especially if you love coloured pencils like I do. Set up by Ann Kullberg, it is basically a directory of coloured pencil websites, blogs, videos, workshops, etc and is well worth a visit. No doubt I’ll spend many an hour admiring the work of other artists and more blogs will be added to my favourites.

Chocolate Lab finished

Milly
16X12 Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I actually managed to finish Milly on time but have been sitting on it (not literally of course) for the last couple of days to see if there were any areas jumped out at me in need of attention before calling it done. I am happy to say however that she has now passed my ‘scrutinization’ period and is ready for approval.

On the home stretch

Milly
Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Slowly (is there any other way with coloured pencils?) but surely Milly is coming together. This has been one of those portraits where I was forever going back to bits I’d previously called finished or starting one area and deciding I wanted to do another, then another all before any were finished. Probably wouldn’t look good if doing a demo but the end results are the same and that’s what matters at the end of the day.

Chocolate Lab

It’s been some time coming but at last we are getting some nice weather with, importantly, lots of sun. Only problem is I want to make the most of it, which means time away from the drawing board. It’s a good opportunity however to look for and take some much needed reference material for future drawings so don’t feel too guilty.

Here are the first stages of my next portrait as mentioned very briefly in my last post. Ideally I should be further along than where I am now but staying hopeful that it will be finished by Sunday, otherwise I'll be playing catch-up. When completed this will be 16x12 inches in size so quite big for coloured pencil.

A couple of updates

Zara
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Not a big update but an update all the less, which shows a bit more work has been done to her body. Quite a bit more needs to be done in this area but it will have to wait as I work on my next commission of a chocolate lab – you can see my reference for this in the sidebar. I’ve made a start but it’s still in the early stages and there’s really not enough on paper just yet to warrant a progress shot.

Work still continues with my prints after encountering yet more unforeseen problems over the weekend – not that I should really be surprised. While I had hoped at this point to excitedly tell all that my prints were now ready I instead have to console myself that it’s not to be, at least for the time being. I am progressing; I am getting there and I am learning – it’s just taking (a lot) longer than I’d planned.

Prints and a new coloured pencil portrait

Something I have wanted to do for what seems like forever now is to turn my artwork into prints so I thought I would spend time this week working towards finally completing this goal. It certainly feels like it has been one long journey getting to the stage I'm at, believe it or not, with there always being something or other to sort out – anything from problems calibrating my computer to simply finding space to house my (huge) printer. I’ve been scanning, sizing, photoshoping and tweaking these past few days to get things set up and ready for the printing stage. Tomorrow I’ll spend the day printing proofs and making sure everything looks good – like the colours, image size, etc. At last I feel I’m getting somewhere.

My pencils haven’t been forgotten in all the excitement over my prints and I have been picking them up now and again to work on a portrait I started a while back. The subject for this drawing is very dear to me as she was our dog and, although no longer living with us, I still love her to bits. She was the model for this portrait, which reminds me – I originally wanted to make this into a print too.

Here are a couple of ‘in progress’ shots.

Patience - finished

Patience
16x12 Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

It’s been a while coming but here she is, finished and waiting for approval.

Nearly there

Patience
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Another quick post where I don't have a lot to say but do have an update on Patience to show you. The next post should see her finished.

An update

Patience
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

The work continues and Patience is starting to come together. I think I can honestly say that from the many portraits I've had the pleasure of drawing that this has been one of the hardest coat colours to get right – every hair seems to be a different shade of grey. Luckily I have enough pencils to choose from.

Scanner or Camera?

Patience
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about photographing and/or scanning artwork trying to decipher which method gives the best result. I’m assuming this would be a matter of opinion amongst artists with arguments for and against both. I personally always scan my drawings simply because I’m not very good with the camera, get lost when it comes to setting the right exposure and get better results with my scanner – although, as explained in my last post, I’ve never been totally happy with the finished images, despite playing around with them in Photoshop.

As it is about time I stop moaning about this and doing something about it I thought (to avoid personally emailing you all:)) I would start with a poll on my blog to see what your preferred method is. I’m interested to know how you get good images of your artwork - the kind that you would be happy using for such things as prints to sell, for use on marketing materials, website or for entries into exhibitions. In other words, good, clear images that remain true (as possible) to the original.

I’ll leave the poll running for a fortnight in the hope of getting as many replies as possible and hope you will participate. I also welcome any comments you might have on the subject.

The image in todays post is what I am currently working on. I’m really excited about this drawing as, although not my first horse, it is my first to commission. Here’s hoping it leads to more. This is the first stage and I should have another update soon.

All done

Charlie
16x12 Pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

It never ceases to amaze me just how time consuming all those ‘little jobs’ that need doing can be. Visits to the framers for mounts, wrapping portraits for posting, printing photos, paperwork, updating website, etc, etc – all need doing but is time spent away from the drawing board. My time planned with my camera and photographing artwork didn’t happen unfortunately but it will get done, and soon.

I did manage to finish my portrait of Charlie and get a scan I am happy with thanks to pencil artist Grahame Butler (thank you), who left a very helpful Photoshop step-by-step on my last post on how to get that background white without affecting the drawing. This is definitely a great starting point and something I can play around with and expand on in the future.

Pencils used in this portrait, for those who are interested, were Staedtler Mars Lumograph in grades 4H, 2H, H, B, 2B and 3B.

Nearly there

Charlie
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Not much more to go now but thought I would show another work in progress stage before unveiling the completed portrait which, all going well, should be finished tomorrow.

The more I look at this scanned image and those on my website (some of which are terrible) the more determined I am to find out how to get good photos, or scans, of graphite pencil drawings. Surely there is a way that isn’t too technical for me to deal with.

I like to keep a record of every drawing or painting that I do and that includes a good copy of the original, either scanned or photographed, which can be used on such things as my website, for advertising and marketing purposes, for exhibition entries or to be turned into prints. The image therefore needs to be true to the original in colour and detail and while I do need to work on photographing artwork as a whole I feel I fall way short when it comes to my graphite drawings. A bad scan or photo isn’t helping me and doesn’t show my work to it’s best potential.

So with the above in mind I’m going to dedicate a couple of days playing with my camera first and seeing what I come up with. I can’t help feeling that a lot of the work will need to be done in Photoshop – my Achilles heel – in which case it could take a lot longer than a couple of days to get right. My main problem, as I see it, are the white backgrounds that are a feature in the majority of my drawings and getting the camera or scanner to keep them white while keeping everything else in the drawing correct and true to the original. Large white areas can confuse the camera – not sure what happens with the scanner – and it should just be a case of getting the right exposure and light to take the photo in. Right?

I can tell this could take quite a while so any helpful advice would be gratefully received. And of course anything I learn on this journey will be shared here for all to see.

A quick update

Charlie
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Just popping in to show you more of Charlie and what stage he is at. As you can see he’s slowly coming together

German Shepherd

Charlie
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

For some reason or other I had it in my head that entries for the UKCPS Open International Exhibition 2009 had to be in by the end of March so have spent the past week panicking because I hadn’t started anything for it. Each year I promise myself that I’ll enter something to this exhibition but never do, mainly because I haven’t drawn something I've considered good enough. So you can imagine how relieved I was to find it was in fact the end of June – 24th to be exact – that entries had to be in by. Panic over for now.

I did find the time to start a new coloured pencil drawing that may or may not end up being submitted that I will continue to work on in between my commissions.

For now though I am working on a graphite pencil portrait of a German Shepherd called Charlie. I love my coloured pencils but love graphite just as much, if not (slightly) more. What I don’t like about graphite is being unable to get a good enough scan or photograph of the finished drawing. So much of the detail is lost and the support always ends up looking grey when it should be white. I do intend to play more with my camera to see if I can get better results with that but until then this is the best I can do with my scanner. At least you get the idea.

Finished

Jed
Coloured pencil on paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’m calling Jed finished before I end up overworking him with my ‘touch-ups’. Next stage, providing the finished portrait is approved of course, is a visit to my framers to choose a mount.

I’m still undecided how big this portrait will end up being – the height is definitely 18 inches, it’s the width I’m not sure about. I can’t help feeling there should be quite a bit of space on the left (as we look at it) to give him space to ‘turn into' but its how much I’m having problems with. I’ll play around with mounts at my framers and get her valuable input before I make a decision.

The pic above has been cropped and only required me to paste two scans together in Photoshop but I thought I would give you a better idea of the final composition and how it will look below, even though it involved stitching (not sure if that’s the correct term) four scans together – not that easy for a technophobe like me.

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Getting there

Jed
A Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Jed is starting to look more complete now that he has all his legs and paws in. All that’s left to do now is the neck area – which I deliberately left to the end – and more work on his shoulder. He will of course be ‘grounded’ and not floating in air like he is at the moment as it is my intention to add a bit of sand here and there where necessary.

Something on my to-do list lately has been to move my Feed Burner account over to Google. As you know Feed Burner is merging with Google and I am led to believe that everything will be finalised at the end of this month (I could be wrong so don’t quote me). With the end of the month fast approaching I thought I’d better not put it off any longer and have now made the necessary changes, which I’m relieved to say was very simple. There shouldn’t be any problems with subscriptions etc, but do let me know if there are and I will do my best to investigate.

Greyhound - Stage 2

Jed
A work in progress

I’ve not spent as much time as I would have liked on Jed this week thanks to the schools being closed for the mid term break. For some reason or other I never seem to get as much work done when they’re closed and yet I never take this into account when planning ahead in my diary. Typical.

Thankfully I’m not falling behind with commissioned work but I am with possible exhibition pieces and I’ll really need to get my finger out and do something about this if I want to meet my goals for the year. A couple of days out and about with my camera should give me some much needed inspiration and hopefully great reference material to work from.

Greyhound

Jed - stage 1

I’ve started work on Jed, affectionately called the ‘dancing greyhound’ by his owners in this shot of him. Drawing Jed in this pose is a welcome change to the more traditional head studies that I do and I would always encourage anyone to go for something that little bit different.

As always, you can see the reference I am working from in the sidebar to the right.

Labradors finished

Raven and Sam
16X12 Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Here they are, Raven and Sam together, albeit a day later than promised - blogger was playing up yesterday and wasn’t letting me upload any photos as it does periodically.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on this portrait and will miss looking at their faces every day. Next up on the drawing board is a greyhound with a difference.

Labradors - stage 4 and an award

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Sam - Stage 2
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A bit more work done on Sam who, as it turns out, is taking less time to complete than Raven. Not surprising really when I consider the time it takes to build up all the blacks in Ravens fur. Tomorrow should see this finished and a scan of the full portrait with both dogs together.

Changing topics somewhat, I am pleased to announce that my blog has been awarded an award by not one, but two fellow bloggers and artists - Elizabeth McCrindle and Lene Daugaard. Thank you both so much for this - as they say up here in Scotland, I'm well chuffed.

Something I have to do in accepting this award is to list 7 things that I love and then pass the award onto 7 of my favourite art blogs. So the 7 things I love are …..

1. My kids - couldn't live without them.
2. My art time
3. Dogs, especially labs, and the things they get up to.
4. Chocolate
5. Long summer days
6. Looking at other artists work and art books (does that constitute two?)
7. Simon Cowell (don't ask)

And the 7 blogs that I’d like to pass this award onto, in no particular order, are …..

1. Teresa Mallen
2. Rhonda Bartoe Tucker
3. Sally Lancaster
4. Alecia Underhill at Art and Horses
5. Colette Thieriault
6. Kim Ratigan
7. Steven Chipman at Wax Bloom

Labradors - stage 3

Raven

Raven is now finished, minus some whiskers that I will add at the end once Sam is in the portrait. Talking of which - this is the stage I am at just now with him.

Sam - stage 1

I am just loving their faces and the longer I look at them, the more I want one.

Labradors - stage 2

Raven - stage 2

How could you refuse those eyes? I don’t know what captured his attention or what he was patiently waiting for but I’m sure he got it looking like that.

Not much more to do – all going well I should have Raven finished tomorrow and I can make a start on Sam.

Labradors - stage 1

This week has seen me back working on commissioned portraits after my much needed short break, and what better subject to start with than a couple of beautiful labs. Labradors are not only one of my favourite breeds of dog (I’m currently fighting the urge to have one join the family) but they’re also one of my favourite to draw.

I’ve made a slight change to my normal ‘routine’ when it comes to work in progress shots for my commissions and decided to show them all on my blog and not on my website as I did in the past. My reason for this is simple – I wanted to avoid unnecessary duplication, and ultimately more work, as I would often put the same pics on both my website and blog. So for anyone who happened to follow my ‘Work in Progress’ pages on my website and wondered where they’d disappeared to, you now know. I'm hoping this will make things easier but I'm always open to suggestions if you disagree.

The labs I am working on just now are called Sam and Raven. Here is where I am now with Raven - you can see the photo I am working from in the sidebar.

Raven - stage 1

More on the Clydesdale

Clydesdale
A Work in Progress

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I’ve managed to do a bit more to my Clydesdale but have decided to leave it at this stage and put it away out of sight while I concentrate on something else. I thought I could see a way forward with this drawing but still managed to pick fault with practically everything about it. Very frustrating – I rarely give up on a drawing. Technically I haven’t given up as hopefully when I go back to it I will see it with fresh eyes and all the problems I currently see will magically disappear.

Something I will say in its defence – it does look better in real life. The scan seems to have zoomed in on the reds and made it look a bit garish.

Clydesdale

Clydesdale
A Work in Progress

I’ve not been very productive lately thanks to some horrible bug that saw me laid low and feeling sorry for myself for a few days. I did manage to start a drawing before it hit me but have been fighting the urge to throw it in the bin the whole time I have been working on it.

It wasn’t working for me - the colours weren’t right, there wasn’t enough contrast, the composition didn’t work. You name it, I found fault with it. Thankfully, it didn’t make the bin and I can now see a way forward with this drawing when I get back to it.

If I’m being totally honest with myself I think I was being impatient – I wasn’t getting anywhere fast enough. But then this is something I know all too well. It does take many, many (and often many more) hours to finish a coloured pencil drawing but sometimes, just sometimes, I’d love to push the whole process along and get the results I am after quicker. Maybe it’s time to start one of those paintings I keep promising myself to do so I can switch between the two should I get impatient.

Finished

Camera Shy
16x9 inches, Coloured Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

I must be growing impatient as I feel like I’ve been working on this drawing forever but I’m glad to say it is now finished – at least for the time being. I’m contemplating adding a bit of background - not a lot, more of a suggestion here and there - but need to take a break and look at it with fresh eyes before I can decide.

All in all I have enjoyed working with a grisaille underpainting and although I won’t work solely in this way from now on (I’m far too stuck in my ways) it is something I will definitely play with in the future. So what have I learned?

• I liked the fact that all my values were worked out and in place before I added any colour making this stage quicker and easier. It wasn’t, however, a quicker way to work overall taking into account the grisaille stage (I’m still searching for a quicker way to work with my pencils).
• There is still a lot to learn, and experiment with, on colours to use for the grisaille and the effects they will have on the finished drawing. Also the pressure with which the colours are applied can make a difference – there were areas in my drawing where I had a layer or two too much and could have gone lighter (and vice versa) so more work needed there.
• The colour covered the grisaille surprisingly well – this was something I found hard to get my head around at first for some reason. Probably due to the fact I’m so used to working from light to dark.
• The grisaille underpainting didn’t give me any more depth to my drawing than I would get from working in my normal way. Working with a grisaille does add depth to your drawing but I personally didn’t see any noticable difference.
• I really enjoyed working on the grisaille stage with only a few pencils as opposed to many – very therapeutic - which can only be a good thing.

The subject for this drawing was a beautiful Thoroughbred that I photographed at Musselburgh racecourse last July as she was led around the parade ring. Every time she spotted me with my camera she would hold back and raise her head high to look at me, not taking her eye away from the camera until she had passed. This happened each time she passed and came to the conclusion that it must be the camera hence the title.

The overall size of the drawing was a bit too big for my scanner to cope with so all the work in progress shots have unfortunately had a bit chopped off the bottom. But after playing around with Photoshop this morning I have worked out how to merge two scans together and can now show you the full picture. I can't help thinking the 'chopped' version looks better somehow!

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Adding colour

A Work in Progress

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Here are the next two stages showing colour being added onto my grisaille underpainting. I am so used to working the way I do with my pencils that it has certainly been ‘strange’ starting in this way. As with all new techniques, it will take practice, trial and error to improve but it is definitely an area I’d like to explore more – in painting as well.

Saying this I am happy so far with how the drawing is progressing.

Working with an underpainting

A Work in Progress

Back to my coloured pencils, and this time I decided to approach my drawing slightly differently by starting with a grisaille type underpainting before adding colour. This has been something I’ve been wanting to try for some time mainly to see what can be achieved using this technique.

As you will know, grisaille is the term used for a painting or drawing completed entirely in monochrome – usually shades of grays or browns. A benefit of working in this way is that you can establish your values before any colour is added, effectively making the colour stage a lot easier.

I’d thought of using various shades of greys for my underpainting but decided to opt for complimentary colours instead. I couldn’t help thinking the greys might dull my colours in some way although I will be experimenting with them if I’m happy with the outcome of this drawing. As the horse is a chestnut brown colour with a lot of orange tones, I went for the blues.

I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed working with just a few shades of blue as opposed to around 20 to 30 different colours. At this stage I’m not entirely happy with my values and need to darken some areas quite a bit for more of a contrast. The fear I have is that I’ll make it too dark for colour to be seen when added on top and can’t help thinking I might already have too much blue there as it is without adding more. But I do need to push those darks somehow.

Apart from working more on my values there is not much left to do at this stage and I can start to think about adding colour.

Changes

Graphite pencil on paper, 11'x8'

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Something I have been meaning to do for a long time is to update my blog and move with the times as far as it was concerned. I think I was the only blogger left using the old template and I was feeling a bit left out especially when I saw all the wonderful things you could add using the layout tab.

Of course, it was easy enough to change and I did this last year but disliked the way it moved everything around in my earlier posts – mainly squashing everything together and leaving no spaces between paragraphs and pictures. Being a perfectionist and not having the faintest idea how to amend all this I went back to the old template – at least this way everything looked alright.

But I guess the layout tab has won (it was either that or starting a new blog) because I’ve now changed back as you can probably tell with all the additions I’ve added to my sidebar. I spent quite a bit of time on this last night, even tried to edit my text in previous posts with the spacebar so everything didn’t look so cramped but it didn’t work – that will probably niggle away at me until I find a solution or grow to accept it. What is bothering me more however is the appearance of what looks like a small spanner and screwdriver appearing several times down the sidebar on the left – can you see them? I went to bed last night and they were there, got up this morning and they’d gone, made a change in layouts and they’re back to haunt me. Now everytime I check my blog they are there – does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them? And there are people I have added to my blogroll who aren’t showing and I’m at a loss to why. I’m sure I make things difficult for myself as nothing ever seems to run smoothly.

My blog will probably be a work in progress for a couple of weeks until I get everything as I like it so bear (or is it bare) with me as I play around with it.

I’m calling my graphite drawing of a horse finished for the time being – I’m still undecided what to do with the background and I may yet continue the shading to the edges of the paper. Looking at it now on screen I think something needs to be done though it does look better in real life.

A horse continued

A Work in Progress

Graphite pencil on paper

I’m still working away on the horse above – not much more to go now, mainly just the mane to do and the inevitable touch-ups. I hadn’t actually planned on doing this horse next, it just happened, and despite it taking longer than I’d hoped to complete I want to finish it before I start anything else.

It started out as a sketch or at the very least a drawing where I could ‘loosen up’ my pencil strokes in an attempt to break free from being so true to my reference photo. But before I knew it I was adding the intricate details and putting in the hours.

My problem is that I work from photos and I have to draw what I see. Obviously when working to commission I have to be true to my reference and it isn’t a problem but when working on my own pieces I can’t help being made to feel guilty about reproducing exactly what is in the photo, especially if that work is planned for an exhibition and it isn't my photo I'm working from. There is a lot of objection to this and, while I do feel my drawings are how I interpret the photo, I do want to work more ‘loosely’ - have the photo more as an aid and not concern myself so much with the fine detail. Change things even - for me that's a challenge. The problem I have is that my hands wont seem to let me. Or maybe it’s my head not happy with the results if I don’t draw what I see in front of me, details and all – I will persevere.