Rose blossom on pastelbord, WIP

Ah, the adventures in my studio...

I started a new piece this morning. I had my drawing on a piece of tracing paper and I was ready to transfer the lines to my Pastelbord. I inserted my transfer paper only to have an oops moment. Without thinking, I had inserted a piece of white transfer paper but darn it all, the Pastelbord is white. Just wasn't going to work...okay it was early and I hadn't even brewed coffee yet. Now the real problem sets in - I don't own any graphite transfer paper. I have never needed any. When working on white paper, I am able to use my lightbox to transfer the line drawing but as this is a board, it isn't see-through.

I needed a plan B. I grabbed my Wolff's 2B carbon pencil and I created my own graphite transfer paper. I rubbed the carbon pencil over the back of the tissue paper and voila! Worked like a charm.

About this piece: it is on a 5 x 7 inch panel of white Pastelbord (which has a sanded surface similar to pastel paper). While some of my work is small in size, I don't normally work this small. I purchased a package of four 5 x 7 inch Pastelbord panels so here I am doing a rather small rose blossom. The finished size will be smaller than 5 x 7 as I am saving room around the edge to allow for framing. I have read that people using the white Pastelbord don't like it, especially when compared to working on the other available colours of Pastelbord. So far I am enjoying working on it. The only negative so far, is that I find it harder to keep the areas that I want left white clean (especially when compared to working on Stonehenge paper). .

I like it when the tooth of the paper shows through in a work and I do like the toothy nature of this sanded surface. I am applying the pigment in the old fashioned way in that I am just laying down layers of coloured pencil. In this piece I am not filling the tooth with the use of Neocolors II crayons, watercolour pencils, solvent or colourless blender. My goal is for the the tooth to remain visible. Already I find that this adds to the delicate, soft look of the piece. I am using Prismacolor Lightfast pencils.

This is a fun piece for me as I like working on white objects. This may be a white rose blossom but by the time I am done with it, it will have quite a bit of colour. I 'see' so much colour in white :-) ...for those of you who have taken the Beyond the Basics course with me, remember the white tea cup and cloth project? I have a white peony blossom in the header of this blog. Further evidence that I love to add colour to white!

As you can see from the top photo, I am working at establishing my darker values first. I intend to crop the piece more on the right than the left so keep in mind that compositionally, the image will change.

Apples on Pastelbord, Work In Progress

Here is my newest endeavour, coloured pencil of course, on gray Pastelbord. Pastelbord is made by Ampersand (www.ampersandart.com). This product is a board not paper. The board or panel, is acid-free, and archival. Their packaging states that the "exquisite sanded surface" consists of a "hand applied kaolin clay ground, textured with fine marble dust granules. Holds more pastel layers than any other surface!" Of course you can use this support with many media, not just pastel. The surface is similar to the sanded surface found on pastel papers such as the Colorfix and Wallis brands.

For those of you in Canada, I haven't yet found a supplier here. After trying various Canadian on-line suppliers, I searched the Ampersand site. They do supply some products to a few stores in Canada, but not this Pastelbord (at least not according to my searching). Not to worry though, it is available from on-line suppliers in the U.S. There are several good suppliers such as Blick Art Materials (www.dickblick.com) and Cheap Joe's Art Stuff (www.cheapjoes.com). I like shopping from Dick Blick on line. They are a great resource for professional art materials. I appreciate the fact that they carry the Prismacolor Lightfast line of pencils in open stock. For a complete list of suppliers, try doing a google search or check out the various ads in magazines such as American Artist and The Artist's Magazine.

So, about the art...I am working on a 5" x 7" panel. One of the reasons I chose a small size is so that I could get the work completed rather quickly. I am giving a presentation in three weeks to an art group here in Ottawa. The members of the group are experienced artists. I have been advised by the event organizer that many will probably have some knowledge of the basics of working with coloured pencils. Therefore I thought I would focus part of my presentation on what isn't generally known about the medium - such as working on surfaces other than paper. So that brings me to this project, creating an piece for the 'show and tell' part of the presentation.

The first WIP picture (lower image) shows the bright underpainting that I put down. The gray surface is rather dead and dull but the wonderful thing with it is that colours seem to glow when applied. This use of an underpainting is also my approach when working on white paper. I ask myself what colours I see underneath the red of the apples and these go on first. The lower layers affect the end result because they are still visible. This is in part due to the fact that I don't burnish. This is just my style, the way I achieve the look I am after. While it takes longer than other methods of working I just love the final result. For me it is what makes coloured pencil work look so unique.

I am working top apple, left apple then the right apple. I am right handed and I don't want my hand across the work if I can help it. Working on this surface causes a fair amount of pencil pigment to flake off in the process. This method of working keeps the pigment off of my hand and prevents me from smearing the work with this excess pigment. Having said this, I still have more to do on the top and left apple. I will continue to work on them (being mindful of where my hand is resting) as I get the last apple underway.