16″x12″ water soluble graphite on Khadi paper
I love using water soluble anything, so this was a relaxing way to spend a rainy morning. I could only find two of my pencils, however, so I’ve misplaced three of them. I used the tin of Artgraph Viarco graphite as well the carbon “tile” from the same company which helped with large areas of darker value.
I finished this 9″x12″ colored pencil drawing based on a photo I took of one of my favorite farms. I started with a piece of Strathmore 500 Bristol Vellum and a light, complimentary watercolor wash–orange on top and purple on bottom–and then covered the entire thing with colored pencils (Caran D’Ache Luminance). The sky has about six or seven layers of different shades of blue, but the light orange still shows through as little glowing dots. I’m trying to decide if I like this effect and if I should stay away from complementary colors when it comes to an underpainting. It certainly gives a moody effect. I’m really pleased with this. Sometimes I think I could be content painting only barns and horses.