Virtual Sketch Date 3 - In the Shadows

In the Shadows
5 in x 7 in graphite on Claybord

Above you see my effort for the Virtual Sketch Date. This post reviews some experimenting I did on this piece.

Cropping Experiments
First, I cropped the photo down to the flower in the shadows of the original reference. Secondly, I cloned a few petals of the original focal point and put them on the right side of my focal point, just for better composition. Originally, I planned to do this on a dull yellow tinted paper with red and violet for midtones and darks (and possibly white ink for highlights). In the end I didn't think the paper would hold the ink well so I moved onto a different experiment. Also, I played around quite a bit, in the end this was "reference option 6" - it was good fun to try out several ideas. That was one of my goals with the VSDs, being forced to use a particular photo I then have to be creative to make it a reference that speaks to me.

Broadside Pencil Painting
Having read so much about broadside pencil painting recently, I just had to try it out. Watson used to recommend Cameo paper, a clay-coated paper to make this technique really work. Cameo is no longer made, but I thought I might try out the Ampersand Claybord to see how it would work. I also shaped my pencil into a bevel tip, as Watson recommends.

Here's what I found:

• Claybord is smooth...smooth and lovely.
• Using a pencil broadside on such a smooth surface really did feel like I was using a brush to push pigment onto a canvas. It really did feel more like painting than an annoying hard-to-use pencil technique.
• Watson cautioned that it would take the artist a while to master this technique. That is clearly true. It is difficult to be consistent with how you hold and "brush" with the pencil. And, of course, once you use the point at the wrong angle you create an inconsistent line and mess up your bevel point. (As I worked left to right, I think you can tell in the photo above that I was more patient on the left than the right.)

And I take from that:

• With practice, I do think that I could get this consistent enough to create the smooth tones found in good examples of this technique.
• I'd really like to try colored pencil on Claybord, both in a traditional manner and in a broadside manner - indeed it would be interesting to compare the results.