'Neptune's Leaves' - finished!

'Neptune's Leaves', Coloured Pencil on Colourfix Paper, 22" x 16"

Copyright Teresa Mallen

'Neptune's Leaves' is finally finished. I redid some veins to improve their placement and I finished the background. When doing the background, I applied pigment and then used a stiff brush to grind the pigment into the paper. This technique gives a look similar to what I would get if I used solvent.

After taking several photos, in different locations, with varying light conditions, using many settings on the camera, this photo is the best I could come up with. Keep in mind that the inside of the leaves are more of a coral colour in real life. I am going to try scanning it to see if I can get a more correct image for my website.

To read about my inspiration for this piece and what I was aiming for, you can click here which will take you to an earlier post. Now I just need to clean up all the pigment that has been flying around while I worked on this sanded surface and I shall be ready to start my next project. For a change of pace, I am returning to Stonehenge paper and I think it is time to do a flower, well at least part of a flower...

Coloured Pencil Leaves WIP 3

Leaves WIP # 3, 22" x 16"

Coloured Pencil on Colourfix Paper

Copyright Teresa Mallen

This is how it looks 24 hours later. As you can see, I started adding in some background colour. With so much olive green paper showing, I was concerned that it was affecting my colour and value choices. I am still building up colour, especially on the inside of the front leaf. I also will be adding veins to the back leaf. Adding the veins at this point will be more work to get to look right than if I had put them in at the beginning but I wanted to compare the two looks. At one point I was considering not having such pronounced veins and I was going to draw more stuff into the background. Given the busy 'in your face' nature of the front leaf at present, I don't think I will confuse things by adding to the drawing. Still, this is a work in process and of course things may change.

I would like to take a moment to thank Christine over at Creative Life Studio for the following blog award. I am supposed to pass this award on to five other bloggers that inspire me. I am afraid I am going to be a bit of a wet blanket here and not do this. Many of the artists that I would be nominating no longer participate in blog memes. As a substitute, I suggest that you check out the folks on my blogroll. I am sure that you will be inspired by their creativity and their commitment. Thank again Christine!

Coloured Pencil Leaves WIP...

Here is what my new piece looks like now...the picture below is to give you an idea of the size of the image. I think once it is cropped similar to the image above, it will be 22" x 16".

The colours are a bit off in the photos, the light green leaves are looking too much like light blue here. Despite my talk in the last post about how I wanted to control the process more in this piece, I don't feel too much in control at this point! I am not clear on where this is heading but I think that is a good thing. Maybe I should put my classical music back on and stop all the dancing around I've been doing! :-) I wonder what it will look like the next time I post? Ah, the adventure of it all...



Thanks goes out to Vic who passed this blog award on to me. If you wish to read my list of seven things I love, you can read them at the end of this post.