STEP ONE
Start with the eyes, building up layers of colour, light colours first building to dark. Take care not to colour the whole area inside the eyes, leaving areas of white paper for showing the special ‘glint’ in their eyes. The first colour Canary Yellow will be the base colour.
STEP ONE
My first image shows the initial drawing in pink Conte pastel, which is kept very simple. The light areas are then underpainted with mixtures of white Colorfix primer which have been tinted with Burnt Sienna and Primary Yellow acrylic inks. This is to create a warm, light textured area for the sky and sky reflection.
STEP ONE
Start with your reference image. For accuracy and for a perfectly proportioned drawing you can use the grid method. I overlay a grid onto my image in Photoshop and then using a ruler and a B pencil, draw up a grid with the same dimensions on my blank paper.
STEP ONE
I chose a sheet of Art Spectrum Colorfix as the ground. It has an excellent tooth for pastel. I broadly sketched in the birds with chunky pastel. I placed the birds centrally, the male overlaying the female to perch on an old branch above typical forest vegetation.
STEP ONE
Whether I am working from a sketch made at the scene or from a photograph I always square up the page using 4, 5 or 6cm squares, depending on detailing shapes of buildings for accuracy, and in this instance I used 5cm squares. The sketch was slightly smaller and that I had also covered with squaredtracing paper. Using a pencil I prepared an accurate outline of the picture.
STEP ONE
The paper is taped to a board with masking tape.I make a tray with newspaper, and tape it to the board – this gets thrown out when I am finished.
STEP ONE
After lightly sketching the outline, I load a tissue with graphite powder and define the darker and lighter areas of the drawing. This gives me an idea of the differevnt areas and how it has to be shaded.
STEP ONE
Using the smooth side of half a sheet of pastel paper, I drew grid lines and did a fairly rough copy of the outline of the head, eyes, nose, mouth and ears. This was done using a Caput Mortuum pencil and a T554 pastel. I stood back to evaluate the positioning.
STEP ONE (PREPARATION)
To begin Neddy’s portrait I use a light pencil to draw the basic outline and mark out the placement of important features like eyes, nose, mouth, chest, etc. It is worth spending time getting your drawing just right and saves a few headaches later on.
STEP ONE
I had the truck placed where I could set up my camera (with tripod) to take sufficient photographs for the drawing. I sometimes take up to 150 photographs, depending upon the size of the rig. I made sure the client was happy with the profile before I took the photographs.
STEP ONE
The reference was my son when he was younger. I always loved the photograph but never liked the background or the fact that you couldn’t see his face (obscured by the bubbles). I enlarged the reference photograph and placed the drafting film over it ready to transfer a line drawing in white pencil. As the final piece was to be displayed over black mounted card, it was easiest to see the line drawing in white.
STEP ONE
I set the pose on the paper, using hard pastels, reducing the work to broad areas of solid colour. For this picture, I selected blue for the skin, orange for the hair and red for the shirt; with blue and hot pink in the background.
STEP ONE
The initial pencil sketch is purely to place important features. I really draw with the pen. If I have trouble getting it right, I will trace onto a clean piece of paper. I like to get the pencil rubbed out as soon as possible because it annoys me.
STEP ONE
I chose several different reference photographs of elephants from the Internet, books and newspapers, and practiced several small sketches of elephant compositions.
STEP ONE
I chose a warm sandy coloured sheet of conservation matboard and draw up the main horse and rider with a Prussian blue pastel pencil, and the rest with a Terracotta pastel pencil.