This has been a busy week with deadlines and meetings, so I haven't started anything new... again. (I'll be glad when summer vacation gets here!) I have been working with clay at school, so in a week or two I will have a picture of those to show. They have to dry, then get fired, glazed, then fired again.
So I thought I would go back a few years and pull out a colored pencil work showing the steps in progress, on black Stonehenge paper. I love the effect that you can get on black paper, but it is hard to light and to photograph. I've done several pieces on black stonehenge and plan to do more in the future. The trick is to put a good layer of a white underpainting where you want your lightest highlights, before adding your color. On this piece, I think I should have put more white on first. I had to go back and add more white between layers of yellow. The yellow has a greenish tint in the first few layers. After adding more yellow, more shadows, more yellow and more shadows, I went back and burnished to make sure the brightest yellows were solid.
Step One
White underpainting for highlights,
with violet underpainting for darkest values,
and beginning of some yellow layers on bottom flower.
Step Two
Final Layers
"Yellow Lilies"
Beth S. Macre
© 2005
Prismacolors on Black Stonehenge
Wow Beth! I'm totally caught up in this and thank you so much for sharing how you achieved this lovely painting!
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm really looking forward to seeing what your working on clay wise. And I'll be patient to wait on the pictures as I know with clay it takes a while.
And here's wishing you a grand summer... It's really coming!
Thank you Debbie. I'm just sorry I can't go into specifics with colors that I used. It's been awhile since a finished this one.
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful, the contrasts as well as your use of light and shadows are stunnig !
ReplyDeleteThank you Catherine!
ReplyDelete