Earlier this Month, I took my Artwork along to a local horse show. It was a Studio Mascot free day so I thought I would grab the opportunity to start a new piece to work on while I was there. I thought it might be nice for any stall visitors to watch a piece come to life and to see how I work, and I deliberately went for a piece that I thought would appeal to them. This was the photo I chose to work from. Photo Credit to Eve Barber. I couldn't resist this magnificent boy when I saw this stunning photo. He has so much presence, and the look in his eye is so typical of a Welsh Cob stallion. However, I was naive enough to think it would be relatively simple and that I could get most of it done at the show. How wrong I was... Phase 1 - At the Show So after I'd spent the best part of an hour faffing about with my display, I could finally sit down and start my new drawing. I decided that due to the fact that the drawing would be 'relatively simple' (pah!) I could just do a quick outline.. freehand. After doing my quick outline, I started to get to work on the good bits, starting with his ears. It didn't take long for me to start to realise that things weren't going brilliantly, that something about him wasn't sitting quite right with me, and why I so often chicken out of drawing the outline freehand. However, this didn't stop one of the show organisers falling for him! Still, this is how far I got with him at the show. So at this stage, I could already spot a few things going wrong. ~His eye wasn't quite right. Although the general size and expression I was after was there.. it just didn't seem to work properly. ~His jaw was too heavy, giving him the impression of having a short, thick head (not how it is in the photo!) I would need to slim that right down and change the shape. ~His head shape wasn't right. I can see here I had given him too much of a 'dish' in his head. I am used to drawing Arabians, who have that typical 'dish' in their faces and could feel myself automatically leaning towards giving him all the facial features of an Arabian (wide-set eyes and short, dished head). So I slimmed down the cheekbone on the left side (our left!) of his face, and trimmed a large chunk off his jaw. Phase 2 - Back at the Studio Ok so he is looking better, but something is still not right with him. Starting to block in along his jaw, in the hope that it may start to look better. And yes, I can see it coming together slowly. He's looking more like a Cob. Although, I'm not convinced by his eye, the vein next to his jaw (yes, that's supposed to be a vein!) ![]() (Please excuse the slightly over-contrasted scan of him. Slight misjudgement of lighting, I'm afraid). He is looking better, I had to change the shape of his neck next to his muzzle, as although Cob's are known for their strong necks, it was lacking in shape. I still wasn't convinced and was feeling quite tired and frustrated after a long day in the Studio. So I called it a day. Phase 3 - Bringing out the Big Guns I refused to be beaten by this piece. I was determined to crack it, especially seeing as someone had shown interest in buying it. Even if they hadn't though, I wanted to nail it as a personal achievement. So that night, as I often do with pieces that are giving me grief, I put it side-by-side with the reference photo on my iPad and compared it very closely. The red dots show the areas that I felt needed to be altered. You will notice that I didn't mark his eye. I wanted to see how he looked once these alterations were made. But I had a nasty gut feeling that I would have to move his eye over slightly anyway, as they looked too wide-set. Finally, after a lot of comparing, erasing, re-drawing, re-erasing, walking away, coming back, deep-breathing, not-quite-crying and many cups of chamomile tea later - I made a breakthrough. I moved his vein, re-arranged his face a little (sounds a lot more violent than it was!), mastered the subtle wrinkles on his back, and after a lot more nit-picking, and deciding against a blended background, I eventually put my pencils down in relief. He was complete! And I felt so proud of the result! This scan is pretty much spot on to the actual drawing (my scanner is far more reasonable than my camera!)
He will be heading to his (hopefully!) forever home very soon. It was so worth all the effort. I decided to call him "Llewelyn", after the Welsh King. I think he has a certain regal feel about him. Also "Llew" is welsh for lion, a name I was also considering. But in the end I settled for the popular, strong welsh name - now there is no questioning his welsh roots! I really hope you like him, and have enjoyed getting an insight into how he developed. Creating a piece of Artwork is always a journey of sorts. Some are a lot more difficult than others, but every one is unique and special.
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So I recently completed my first ever drawing on Black Paper! (Photo Credit to Edward Davies) When I first saw the photo my brother in law took of his gorgeous cat “Blue”, I was dying to draw it. I loved the atmosphere and lighting of the photo, plus I haven't drawn a cat before – so it was a double whammy challenge! I was so chuffed when he gave me permission to give it a go. The end result didn't turn out exactly as I imagined, and there are parts that aren't perfect to the photo. But nonetheless, I am very happy with the outcome. Here is a run-through of the process of this drawing, plus a few things I learned along the way! So firstly, I ordered some Vic Bearcroft Black Velour paper, and thought nothing much of it. I did no research whatsoever on using black paper, and just assumed it would behave in the same way as the other Velour papers that I use (same brand, same material, so why worry?) Well.. I had quite a few surprises throughout the process of this drawing, starting from the very beginning. Some good and some bad. One thing I learnt very quickly is that Black Velour paper does not behave like the other Velour papers... Here are a few reasons why. 1. You can't see through it! Uh oh. I couldn't see the printed reference photo through the black paper. At least definitely not well enough to be able to trace it. Yikes. I was gonna have to free-hand draw this one. I guess that will teach me to try and take the easy route! 2. It is a lot more forgiving than lighter coloured papers. Oh good, a nice surprise! It suddenly didn't matter that my free-hand cat outline was absolutely shocking, because I could just alter it as I went by using my black pastel as an eraser, leaving no evidence. YAY! (One annoying thing about other coloured Velour paper is that it does not forgive mistakes.. you can not erase anything, you just have to think of a way to hide it. I was glad to discover that the black paper was a lot more reasonable than this!) 3. It shows up everything, from everyday household dust and fluff to Cockatiel feathers. Fluffkins the Cockatiel lives in the studio / playroom, and his teeny tiny fluffy grey feathers get absolutely everywhere. Well it seems that some of these feathers manage to float across the room to my desk and stick themselves to the velvety Velour paper, and the black showed up every single one. Thankfully, its nothing a bit of sticky masking tape won't sort out! 4. Colours behave differently on black paper. I made the mistake of starting with the brightest areas first. I think to be honest I was just excited about the highlights in the photo and wanted to get straight to them. But all this did was mess up my values (brightness and darkness of tones of colour) and then I really struggled to get the colours and tones to look right. (Also, look at the state of my free-hand drawn cat face! It's wonky! Three-year-old Studio Mascot #1 could probably do a better job!) Here is the moment where I realised it wasn't going especially well. My coloured pencils seemed to look different on the black paper, they even blended differently. It was almost as though I was using different pencils! It's about now that I realised that I should have had a test sheet next to me. As well as that, I found that I had to put down a lot more layers of colour in order to achieve the vibrancy needed, as the black background really dulled the colours down and made them look a bit grainy. A couple of hours later, and it was starting to look how I wanted it to. There was a lot of reshaping and reworking involved to get to this stage, but I thought it would look good when finished. 5. Black paper is very hard to photograph. I'm not sure if its just my camera, but I just couldn't get a decent photo at any stage of this piece. I had to alter it on the computer to make it look like the drawing. It seemed to photograph far too bright (even in a darkened room) and most of the lovely subtle purples, blues and yellows were lost. 6. It makes your brain work harder and think in opposites. Honestly, I should have seen it coming. I should have known that drawing light on dark would be very different to drawing dark on light. Usually, when drawing on white paper, the focus of my effort is on the darker areas. I will build the tones up in layers to achieve depth, and leave out areas of white background to create highlights. The other areas are made up of lighter tones and blending, to achieve the desired effect. The exact opposite applies for working on black paper. The focus of the effort should be on the brighter areas, building up the layers to get that sense of contrast. But (as I learned earlier) these should generally be left until last. So it was great brain-training for me! It really made me look at creating Art from a different perspective! I really felt like I had to work my mind a lot harder to create this piece. Coming towards the end of the drawing now. I couldn't decide whether or not to add a bit of a background for a little extra emotion... And a few hours later.. here is the drawing complete. In the end, I decided to add in a bit of a background, with a bit of blue to help bring out the subtle blue and purple tones in the cats coat. I love the smoky look it creates. 7. I actually love black paper! So despite some struggling, I really enjoyed working with black paper, and I will definitely be using it again. The effect it creates is so dramatic. I don't feel that it would necessarily work with my usual pet portraits, but for a piece of Artwork with the right atmosphere and the right lighting, it works beautifully. Enjoyed this Blog? Have questions? I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to add a comment below :) x Here is a step-by-step walk through how my latest piece "Shades of Life" was created, and all my thoughts and feelings at each stage along the way! This may come as a surprise to many of you, but here I am sticking a to-scale print-off of my reference photo to the window so that I can trace the outline... OMG!! ARGH!! WHAT A MEGA CHEAT!! I always thought so too, but guess what? So many Artists do this. I mean.. LOADS of them do this. Even the professionals. I was horrified too, until I realised that as a Work at Home parent, I really don't have time to spend hours and hours getting the perfect outline (because trust me, I have spent longer on the outline than on the actual drawing in the past!) I really admire and envy Artists who can just knock out perfect sketches. It's amazing. But I just can't. There was a time when I used a grid, but I basically got the same result through tracing, so I decided to save myself a load of time. And honestly, the way I see it, the skill is in bringing the outline to life, and not in the outline itself. (For the record - I don't always trace the reference photos, it really depends on how complicated they are). So here we go, I'm ready to start on the fun bit! Here's what I used: WHSmith Pure Graphite Sticks. I LOVE these pencils. They are so beautiful and smooth to use, and they are solid graphite (as opposed to a strip lead through wood) so they can be used at an angle to create thick pencil strokes. Also, due to the fact that they are pure graphite, the sharpening filings can be smudged to create gorgeous blotchy, blended backgrounds. Derwent Coloursoft Colouring Pencils. These I am not convinced by. I found them very difficult to work with. However, I am determined to master them so I will definitely be using them again. Also.. Blending stump, pencil eraser, standard eraser, blue tack and burnisher (not pictured). First Step.. the Tulips (being right handed, I always work left to right. This minimises smudging). I absolutely loved drawing these Tulips! (Hahaha! Just look at that Badger! I mean is it even a Badger? Or is it a Dog.. or a Pig..? This just proves that tracing the outline really isn't that much of a big deal! Also, look how shoddy my lines are! Imagine how shoddy they would have been if I hadn't traced it!) Ok, I'm panicking.. this is not going to plan. I hate these pencils. I hate that Tulip. I've ruined the whole picture. I'm gutted. And I absolutely regret using A3 paper.. should have stuck to A4. Why, oh why, did I feel the need to 'challenge' myself!?!? I'm persevering.. starting to feel a bit better about it, although I still feel it might have been a terrible idea.. (I'm also still wondering how the heck I'm going to make a Pig look like Badger...) Horrendous. I hate the Badger's nose even more than I hate that Tulip. The Badger / Pig / Whatever-the-hell-it's-meant-to-be is ugly and I hate it. I am fuming and close to shredding the whole thing. Being the stubborn cow that I am, I refused to give up, and the Badger is going surprisingly well. It seems that my camera hates that Tulip as much as I do, as it is refusing to get an accurate photo of it. After reworking the nose and filling in the other eye, I am now very glad that I didn't shred this drawing (still not happy with that Tulip, though!). I genuinely feel that blending Colour into Graphite will actually work, so that is an accomplishment. I am, however, looking forward to getting it finished so that I can move on from this emotional roller coaster. FINISHED!! YAY! I don't LOVE the outcome, but I do really like it. It tried very hard to go wrong, so I played it safe in places, but all things considered I think it turned out really well! Even the Tulip! Someone is already interested in buying it, so it must be ok! It has a strong symbolic meaning behind it that I can closely relate to (details of which can be found in my Blog Post "Shades of Life" The Inspiration Behind the Artwork) Welcome to my first Blog post!
I love reading blogs - especially Art blogs. I feel so inspired by people who are really passionate about what they do, and want to share that passion with the world. Art is such a beautifully diverse subject, and every single Artist (whatever their skill-level) has something wonderful and unique to offer. As Evoke Fine Art has grown, I have wanted to start a blog so that I could share my own special creative journey. However, any previous attempts have quickly fizzled out due to lack of post ideas and lack of confidence (I struggle a lot with self-doubt). I am still a little nervous about this blog, but after doing lots of research and planning I have lots of posts lined up, which I hope you will find useful and enjoyable. I will be sharing the processes used to create my Artwork and behind-the-scenes Studio sneak-peeks. Also, you will learn about where I find my inspiration and the immense effect it has on my work (and also my life!) Often, I am asked by clients how on earth I manage to get any work done whilst also caring for my two small children, and keeping the house tidy. The truth is, self-discipline and some pretty questionable multi-tasking (more on that later). Even while I write this simple Welcome post, I have a 13-month-old throwing cereal at me, a 3-year-old loudly singing (and very elaborately dancing) along to the Frozen soundtrack, and a dog on each foot. I can't wait to share with you some of the comical stories from my life as a work at home mum (as well as some seriously crucial coping mechanisms and organisation tips, which I'm sure all busy parents will find helpful!) I hope you will enjoy my blog, and I look forward to any comments or questions you may have. |
Welcome to My BlogHere you will be able to join me on my Artistic journey, discover where I get my inspiration, follow my latest work and pick up some useful tips and techniques along the way! Categories
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