2012
Here are some of the sketches I made while on my way to completing the final draft. As stated elsewhere, I use the Premiere edition of Prismacolor colored pencils for the final draft. The lead in these pencils is very soft and creamy so it takes several passes to achieve total saturation. I use toothy paper too, so the pigment behaves in an almost paint-like way in that it can be fudged around on the paper a bit. However, unlike paint, mistakes cannot be covered. In my opinion, this makes colored pencil art an even more demanding medium than say oil paints.
Undersea Mystery
9/26/11
Undersea Mystery
One of my favorite medias lately is colored pencil. Prismacolor pencils are the best. They can be blended and heated with friction to achieve a glossy finish with ultra-punchy colorization. This piece, shown in full at bottom, measures 11x14.
Waterfall I needed to show a body as it would float to the bottom of the sea. As is so often the case, a posable body model helped me a lot. Once I have a believable pose, I move on to adding fleshing it out. Although the final version will be clothed, I always get better results when I have a decent nude to work with.
FIshin’ When it comes to your artwork, anything goes. I goofed around with a few different paint schemes before choosing the orange and white version.
Hair Raising Time Having things appear suspended in water challenged me at every step. I roughed in this hair mock up and liked it right away. Hair is one of the most difficult things to draw. I am still learning.
It’s in the Details I learned a lot about diamonds on my way to learning how to draw them accurately. I also made a variety of hand poses such as this left hand pose that I ended up not using.
Right to Bear Arms Remember that not everything needs to be drawn for a picture to look real. In this case, I did not draw all eight arms. Note that the final copy has the octopus in a slightly different pose. The suckers were tedious to color.
Into the Ocean The sea background contains a half dozen or so colors from the blue and green family. I used a woodless colored pencil for the large areas. Blending around tight spaces took patience. Undersea themes are perfect for the artist who wants to go wild with color.