Sennelier

oh man -- just tried Sennelier oil pastels -- I am stoked!! soft smooth yummy. Will switch to these for main work and just use the Holbeins for fine line detail.

Finished Cyclamen

Many hours later (anywhere from 9 to 14+ hours = sore fingers!) the drawing is finished. I carefully check all shapes making sure that they "work" -- that they read as form -- that they are not flat. Often the hardest part of a drawing is choosing the background color -- in this drawing it works perfectly -- but I am not always so lucky!!

I love the dynamic out there energetic composition of this drawing. It stretches you.

More Shapes

I continue working completing a shape before I move onto another shape. As shapes are finished I often will go back to a shape to fine tune it -- to adjust a value to strengthen that illusion of form.

Blending

Then with a soft cloth wrapped around a finger I blend the colors together to create a smooth transition between each color. I add more layers of color and blend -- creating a transition that begins to create the illusion of three dimensions, of form.

First Layer

I choose a shape in the drawing where I want to begin. Then I begin by rubbing color from the oil pastels or the oil paint sticks onto my finger -- then rub this color from my finger into the paper.

Success

begins with getting started.

(I love this quote -- and so with my next posts, I will get started with the Cyclamen drawing)

Next

I lightly grid my paper to quarters and draw from my photograph. Even though I slightly abstract and simplify my photographs for my art work-- I want the shapes of my subject matter to be accurately drawn to size. Then I do color experiments -- testing several different color schemes to choose a light to dark value range for the drawing. For this Cyclamen drawing I chose peach (lightest value), napthol red (middle value), dioxazine purple and olive green (darkest value).
Color is so yummy!!!