How I Work: Step One

value drawing from A Place to Park

Ever wonder what goes into a colored pencil drawing?

Step One: Value Drawing
I draw the whole piece in one pencil. I just begin sketching and work out lights and darks. (In the piece above  you bright sparks will notice that the door at the top of the stairs has two colors in it - that is what happens when you shut things down at 11pm and decide you just really need to make that one part a bit darker before going to bed!)

Most colored pencil work begins with a refined line drawing and then the artist colors it in. This is largely because colored pencils are transparent and you can't easily "paint over" or "wipe" a section that has gone awry like you can with oil paints and other opaque mediums.

For me, seeing an image build before my eyes is like magic. I just start off with a few shapes, keep adding them like a puzzle and then TADA, I have some thing recognizable. Coloring in a line drawing is just not as fun.

Or dangerous! :D