Here's Really "Pushin' the Pencil"

  Blending, layers, crosshatch, stippling etc. are tools effecting a variety of surface expressions. Metal, glass, fabric, water, ribbons are some surfaces where reflections are very important. To help see these reflections we used real objects, mirrors, magnifying glass and photographs to augment our vision and enforce the memory of the shadows and shapes we saw.

Below are studies sketched on 9X12 paper. Students where to select fur or fabric, glass, metal and something "unique" to focus their skills upon. It was a good experience!

  Shiny surfaces require heavy, emphatic layering, once the initial layers have been blocked out. Leaving the reflection areas white enables easy size adjustment as those areas can be made smaller with more layering.

  Shadows can begin with light grays, and this is a good way to begin glass drawings. Color overlays look softer and can be modified with white pencil.

  Fur is a crosshatching/linear directional delight. Base coats of neutral hues begin the layering, and build ups of short strokes in increasingly darker hues bring out the texture. For very fine details like whiskers, we just scraped lines with a nail or compass point--carefully.

  A mirrow was a great tool for the shiny lips. In this case, reflection areas were placed in white first. Reds, oranges, grays, blues and browns made great blends. For other "unique" renderings, try details of jewelry, polished sculpture, water bottle drips, antiques, engine parts, crochet or knit patches and, well, you get the idea.

We'll end with 2 drawings that exhibit several techniques in each one.

Left: a 1st layer patterned background. The top figures are layered over with a 1 directional blend of 2 hues. Tonal blending and crosshatch detail the foreground figure.

Right: a vibrant lily shows a varied size and pressured crosshatch background, mult-layered analagous/complementary hues, linear texture and stippling.

  Colored pencil, a simple medium, has strong capabilites. We explore them further in the area called: Wet Colored Pencil with some new ways! Take a look!