Wednesday 28 September 2011

Sketchbook - pencil and water colour

I've been dabbling again in my sketchbook, inspired as usual by Linda Ravenscroft and her beautiful artwork.   I've collected a few 'poses' from Sunday supplements and magazines etc. that I thought might give me a start, and the one above is the one I used - just to give me a shape to go by, not to try to copy the image itself.

I washed the background with watercolour, then drew the image with a graphite pencil.  I should have taken a scan before adding any paint really, but forgot!
Added water colour to the wings and a bit more detail to the hair.....
Added more colour and more detail, with coloured pencils as well as the graphite pencil.
I know the image itself is not very good, the more I coloured it and added detail, the more I could see her nose is too long and her body too thin etc. but generally, the shading and colouring is not too bad.  Just as well she isn't supposed to be a copy of the original!  She is a fairy from another world after all!
She isn't finished yet - I want to add more detail to her wings, and something in the background, and perhaps some fairy dust here and there!  I'm off to have another go, with a different 'pose'.  Hopefully the next one will be better.
Till next time .......

1 comment:

Heather said...

What an interesting exercise Val - you have certainly captured her look even if you haven't done a true reproduction. Looking forward to the next one.