Day 15, Silverpoint and Gouache

I'm falling further and further behind with this challenge but hey ho! Will plod on regardless because there are no actual rules here other than self imposed ones. So I'm ploughing ahead making stuff in a random fashion in between other work that I have to do. Yesterday it was time to rummage through the art cupboard looking for missing things when I came across the silverpoint again and thought I'd give it another go....even though I don't quite know what I'm doing!

Day 15, Another attempt at silverpoint, another tulip bulb but this one has grown some roots in water

 As a bit of an side, and nothing to do with silverpoint, I was reading about Andy Warhol the other day. Not that I'm a huge fan but I like him more since seeing the exhibition at Tate Liverpool last year or maybe it was this year ( can't remember ). Also my daughter was writing an essay about him, and I usually get the privilege of proof reading these essays ...anyway to the point! I came across this famous quote of his, apologies if it's not entirely accurate I tend to alter words to suit me.

' Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding , make even more  art.'

That's a philosophy I agree with, just get on with it! at worst it ends up in the bin and you start over, which is better than doing nothing and regretting it. So with that said, I'm not sure what to make of tonights effort. Seems a bit pathetic, but seemingly it will develop over time and it's quite nice to do. 

I had tried Silverpoint last year and not really been overly impressed with my efforts but everything takes time....right!? I've always loved those Renaissance silverpoint drawings, especially those by Durer so wanted to try it.... Guess I was always going to be a bit disappointed with my effort!

'Two Seated Lions' by Albrect Durer 1521. Copyright Wikimedia Commons

So what did I do?

First I referred to this brilliant website on silver point. If I can produce a website on vellum that's half as good I'll be very happy!

 First off you have to prepare the paper with a several coats of the ground. I did this first with ready prepared ground and then decided to add some colour to it to give a more natural colour, it's not unlike natural vellum. I used a Stillman & Birn Zeta series sketchbook and the paper reacted well tho the ground. I can't remember quite what colours added, raw umber and some others, red and transparent yellow plus a touch of neutral tint. About 6 - 8 coats of ground was applied making sure it was fully dry between layers.

Preparing the surface with layers of Golden silverpoint ground, I added some colour to give this natural finish.

 Thereafter I worked with the silverpoint by drawing with the silver medium in it, which is called the metalpoint. You can use other metals too, copper and gold give a different finish. I only had one size piece of silver and could have done with a finer piece but I filed  it a little at the end. 

Hatching with the metalpoint - I added some white gouache to give more depth

The technique is line drawing and a hatching process, to give more tone the hatching lines are made closer together, just like hatching with pencil. It's quite light in tone but apparently it does develop over time as the silver oxidises, so I'll wait a few months to see what happens. Unfortunately if an error is made you can't go back or rub anything out, once each stroke is made it's permanent. 

I did get impatient with the lack of tone and decided to add gouache to highlight, not sure if that's what you are supposed to do but I can't see why not. It seemed to work well with the natural background.

So this is my final piece, I'll post it again  in a few months time if I remember, when hopefully it will have developed  more tone. I guess I can add more to it if needed at a later date.

Final drawing ....just need to wait now and see how it develops with oxidation. This photograph gives a more accurate colour than the others but is a bit dark. Maybe I'll try another one sometime.

 Not sure when day 16 will appear as I've got too much other stuff to do this week but will try my best!
 

Day 6, Tulip in Graphite

Not much time today so it's a short post tonight.  Today graphite was the medium of choice. Working again in the small square Sillman & Birn sketchbook, I chose a pale tulip from a bunch of flowers in the house....and added a slightly odd looking bulb too.

Tulip in graphite for day 6 of the challenge. A tonal drawing  on 7 x 7cm Stillman & Birn sketchbook paper, 270 gsm, smooth. Using Faber Castell 9000 series grades 2H - 4B. Sorry for the dark images, the light had gone by the time I got around to photographing this one.

  The paper gives quite a soft finish which I like, but for really sharp drawings I find the Schollershammer 4G is good. Bristol board is an alternative but personally I don't like it's rather cold appearance.

Laying the foundations with a 2H and H pencils

 After sketching the outline very lightly I usually start any tonal drawing by establishing the basic form using continuous tone technique with a fairly hard pencil, being careful not to apply too much pressurem, the weight and motion should come from the arm to get an even tone. I cover pretty much all all but the brightest highlights. The harder grade pencil creates a smooth foundation to build the darker tones on top. Here I worked from light to dark, using progressively softer pencil grades. For this tulip I used 2H, H, HB, B, 2B, 3B and 4B. I sometimes go over grainy looking soft grades with a harder pencil at the end. This smooths it out.

I added this rather odd looking bulb which had some shrivelled old growth and a split skin, which was about to fall off!

I was going to add a few different parts, such as petals and reproductive parts but ran out of time for today. I don't much like the bulb so thought it would look better with more parts added.
It was a good to work with graphite again, it's one of my favourite mediums. Hopefully more in graphite will follow as the challenge progresses.

Day 4, Yes, it's Another Bulb!

OK this is looking a bit like the 30 day bulb challenge but I promise to paint something else eventually! This evenings effort was a tulip from Amsterdam...other than that I've no idea what type it is but the spouting tip had a nice bit of red on it which made it more interesting....the reddening is probably caused by stress because it should really be in the ground rather than rolling around on my desk!

Todays sprouting tulip bulb painted on a scrap of Kelmscott vellum size 11 x 15cm. All paints were W & N  pans which I prefer for vellum. You can see I like to use the tape and cardboard support to test colour and dry off the brush. David Jackson's brushes ( The Brushman) are the best when it comes to fine lines on vellum!

Starts off looking frightenly scruffy! For the initial wash I used some cerulean blue for the highlight, a bit of cobalt violet for the reflected light and a mix of transparent yellow and perylene maroon for the basic hue

Thereafter I build up the colour and use the modelling dry brush technique using a few different brushes, including the the Rosemary & Co short flat and spotter size 1 and 2. Thin thin transparent layers of colour are layered to create the form shadow. I also added some scarlet lake to the mix on the shade side where it's warmer, on the right side the mix is more yellow. The fine veins are picked out with a pointed brush and the basic hue mix.

Finishing off the bulb I added some purple to the mix, I don't know what it is other than it's Japanese and the most amazing deep violet colour which was asking to be used for something!  No idea about the permanence of this paint but I'm just playing around here so don't really care too much .... it's such a great colour though that I'll check it out properly. Finally I added the pale green shoot using a mix of lemon yellow and cobalt blue with perylene maroon for the red/brown colouration. Ultraviolet was used for the shadows and some van dyke brown and perylene maroon for the darkest fine details.

Tomorrow, maybe I'll break free from the bulbs or I might just stick with them for the week now...