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WORK
IN PROGRESS # 1 |
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NEW
WORK IN PROGRESS # 2 CLICK HERE |
| The following is
some basic information on how I produced the work Twisted Sisters now
renamed Still Standing Strong. It is
by no means a complete lesson but I have striven to share with you some
of the techniques I used in the production of this piece. |
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Click on sample to enlarge |
The
original photograph was taken by myself. It is important to understand
copyright laws when downloading photographs from the Internet to use in
drawing. Unless you have purchased the rights from the copyright holder
or have purchased royalty free pictures you can run into some serious
issues if you use them. I
spent a great deal of time trying different crops of the original photo
until I finally arrived at the composition I was most pleased with. I
then had a photo print made in colour and one in black and white.
After studying the photograph at
length, I completed a rough sketch of the layout for placement purposes
only. As you can see on the left I have laid out the composition with
some indicators of depth of shade scaling. |
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The
marks down the side of the page are the grey shading value scale which, as you can
see, goes from a 0 to 100%. Beside each box I have marked the pencil I
used to produce the depth of shade and the percentages on the left side
of the boxes. This is a guide only as some of the shades can be produced
with less pressure on a lighter or darker pencil.
Once I produced the scale I then
went to the sketch and by comparing it to the black and white photo I
marked the suggested scaling for each area of the sketch. As I produced
the work the actual depth of the shading varied in some areas because
the scale is just a guide. |
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Click on picture to enlarge |
With
the suggested scale in place I then produced a second rough sketch of
the work (I actually just used a scanned copy of the first picture above
without the numbers written on it). This rough sketch is used to block
out the shading in all areas. By doing this you are practising on rough
paper and not your finished paper. People have said to me that if you
make a mistake in drawing it is no big deal because you can just erase
it and do it over. What they don't understand is that by erasing you
actually remove "tooth" from the paper and change how it accepts the
graphite. |
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Click on picture to enlarge |
I
began working from the horizon forward in the picture following the
basic shading scale I produced earlier. I made adjustments to the
shading of specific areas as I worked. I use a piece of tracing paper
under my hand to prevent smudging of any work already done and to
prevent oils from my hand getting into the paper. The first of the
sisters was the smaller one a little way back in the picture from the
main sisters. I completed that section of the work after completing the
mountains and fields in the background. The next section I completed was
the clouds. I then moved to the background behind the two main sisters
in the sketch. When that was completed I moved to the two main sisters.
Notice that the foreground in the sketch is white. I had to protect this
white area at all costs. The final part of the sketch inserted was the
tree shadows on the white area of the ground at the bottom of the
sketch. |
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Click on picture to enlarge |
There
were three types of blending tools I used in the piece. Pictured on the
left are a Torillon - pointed at one end and made from paper; a Stump or
Stomp - pointed at both ends and made from softer material; and a shammy
- made from a from a car shammy cut into pieces about 4 inches x 4
inches. I used these three tools extensively in Twisted Sisters and you
will notice there are a lot of soft lines. Blending tools will do that.
In my next piece I am using a combination of pencils to get the effects
I need and only the blending tools on very rare occasions. (A tip I
recently learned from Mike Sibley) |
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Click on picture to enlarge |
The
use of layout and pre-shading has reduced the time required to produce a
final piece while enhancing the detail and reality of it.
I will be photographing my next
work as I progress on it. It is yet untitled but as I work on each
section I will explain what I have done and how I reached the end
result.
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Click on picture to enlarge
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To the left is the final product
framed and ready to go.
Good luck with your art work and
never give up.
Perry Rose |
