ive managed some good progress in the last couple of sessions in the studio.The head and neck of the baby are now almost complete,all thats needed is a little shadow and fur detail to be added.The markings have almost all been blocked in using an H grade pencil and will now be overlayed with HB and B grade pencils.I'll also be adding in some interesting shadows to lift the image.
3 comments:
The depth achieved by adding the baby is incredible. It also makes its mother's presence so much larger. You could not have chosen a better composition. Giraffes are my favorite animal and this captures them wonderfully! The length of the paper lends itself well to the type and height of the animal portrayed.
I hope I'm not prying, but this rendering is on watercolor paper? How do you "prepare" watercolor paper for graphite? I would think it would be to rough for detail work. Obviously, you have mastered the surface!!
hi brenda i'm glad you liked the composition,it took a while to get it right.i knew what i wanted to acheive but getting the right posture and positioning of the baby giraffe took several efforts before i was happy with the sketches.i work on Arches heavyweight hot pressed watercolour which before stretching is extremely smooth and whilst some artists like this finish i find it impossible to work on.the paper is 100% cotton paper and so when immersed in water the fibres lift a little.i put my paper into a bath for a couple of minutes before 'stretching' it onto my drawing board(in exactly the same manner as a watercolourist would stretch there paper).once ive gumstripped it down i dry it as much as possible using a hairdryer with the paper laid perfectly flat so that retained water is distributed evenly throughout the paper and not pooling at the bottom as it would if the drawing board was not laid flat.i then leave the paper to air dry overnight before i can trace my layout sketch onto the 'prepared' paper.the resultant surface has a slight tooth of raised cotton fibres,not too smooth and not too grabby for the graphite. hope thats of help,best wishes
Your method of preparing paper works so well with your style of drawing. It is truely a perfect match. It is so interesting to hear how an artist creates their art, and even better when a person can watch them creating it. Thanks for sharing this part of your life and letting me bug you! I look forward to the completion of this piece and the ones to come.
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