Rainbow

[Jan]

Hi, everyone:

I finished a portrait of a nurse and her husband a week or so ago, and I can't live without having a project in the works -- so I started this. :) It's from a photo that I got from the library at "that other place" (Wet Canvas). Hope that doesn't offend anyone.

Anyway, this is a grayscale study, drawn with a grid and blended with Lee Hammond's technique. When I tried to just trace the main lines with a light box and start the colored pencil version immediately, I got confused because I wasn't familiar enough with the picture to draw it well. So, I decided to do a graphite version first to familiarize myself with the image.

Here 'tis. I'm tempted to print it out on Rives paper and use it as a grisaille, but I'm not sure how well that will work. I'd have to spray it with fixative first, and I've never worked on top of fixative. Don't know how I'd like that -- and the Rives paper won't take as many layers as Stonehenge anyhow. Does anyone know if Stonehenge accepts inkjet ink well? But there'd still be the problem of working on top of the fixative.

By the way, if anyone has the program Painter, there is a Screen feature that is priceless when it comes to reducing a photo to three values. Makes an image real easy to draw, using Lee Hammond's blending technique.

Thanks,

Jan

[Jan]

By the way, if anyone wants to see the original photo, here it is, also. It's cut from a larger image, with a gradient added in the background. I called the horse Rainbow because all his colors reminded me of a rainbow against the gradient sky. :)

[Arlene]

Jan you've done a wonderful job with the photo you had to work from.

the problem with this picture isn't your rendering, it's the photo. It seems awkward that the face is in shadow but the body isn't. i'm especially talking about the neck from the pink area going towards our left. in that area it's not only brighter but appears to be somewhat flat, and because of that, the drawing (and photo) lacks the dimension.

as for your question about working on a printed grayscale. yes you can and you don't need to spray. when i give a beginning workshop, i print out the outline drawing onto stonehenge in gray. you just have to experiment.

[Jan]

Well, you hit the nail on the head, and you're absolutely right. Maybe I could lighten up the face a bit, since I want that to be the center of interest, and darken up the body once I do the main version.

Thanks for the advice about working on printed paper. I tried that this morning, on a version of this printed on Stonehenge, and doggone it, the texture looked...crackley -- not smooth, like colored pencil normally does on Stonehenge. I must've gone a little crazy with the fixative. I think I put about eight coats on. :o

Thanks again for the lighting advice. I'll try to fix that problem.

Hope you are doing well, by the way -- and LeAnne, too, with her new baby. :)

Jan

[Arlene]

thanks for the good wishes Jan. and like i said, you don't need fixative at all.

[Arlene]

oh when you're ready to do it in color, and have something to post, would you mind if it's moved to the mixed media forum, since it's combining cp and an inkjet print?

[Jan]

You can move this wherever you'd like, m'dear Arlene, but I think I'm just going to re-do the grisaille in colored pencil. Probably Polychromos, since it lifts and blends so easily. Then I'll finish off the brilliant coloring with Prismacolor and/or Caran d'Ache.

But feel free to put the thread any place you think it fits. And it was nice of you to ask even though you didn't have to. :)

Jan

[Arlene]

well since you're going to redo all in cp's, just start a thread in the cp forum with a link to this one too.

[Jan]

All righty, then. :)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed this time, that the "curse of the unfinished cp project" won't kick in.

Jan