Back to the Colored Pencils

 Well, it's been quite some time since I did a colored pencil portrait.  I thought that I'd already done every single possible Crowley or Aziraphale (from Good Omens, in case you've been away from this blog for the past two years and have no idea what I'm obsessed by).  I'd drawn them individually, together, in contemporary scenes, in most of the historical scenes...what could possibly be left?

Then one day it occurred to me that most of these pieces were basically direct copies of stills from the show, or slight manipulations of those, and that only a few were more original--that is, an idea for a new image not from the show.  So I hunted through my ginormous file of saved images and found this photo of Crowley that does not appear on screen--it wound up on the cutting-room floor but someone found it and posted it for all of us fans to enjoy:

I was drawn to his expression.  It's from the scene where he's wondering where he can go to escape Earth's imminent destruction, and failing.  He then dramatically questions why he was cast out from Heaven.  Good stuff!  

My sister says she likes learning about my process, so guess what?  Thanks to her, you are in for a lot of photos showing how I got from Point A (the pic above) to the final piece.  Don't you feel fortunate?

First, I looked through hundreds of photos seeking further inspiration, and when I ran across this promo pic, I thought, "Wings!  I could draw him with wings!"

But while those wings are very cool, I had trouble sketching the head in Pic 1 on Pic 2's body due to the unfortunate arm/hand in the way, so next I found another promo photo with a similar stance:

Much better, and I did want him in his iconic jacket with the red collar, rather than just the thin shirt he's wearing in Pic 1.  So all I had to do was draw the first head onto this body and add the wings from Pic 2.  It was at this point that I thought about what he's feeling, about his unintended Fall, and suddenly got an original idea for once--why not reflect that by shading his wings from white to gray to black to echo his transition from angel to demon?

So it was back to the reference photos, where I found these lovely wings on our favorite angel:

Now I had all the reference photos needed to create this portrait.  I opted to use colored pencils because my efforts with oils had gone nowhere but downhill after the da Vinci angel.  Sigh.  Also, I had noticed my eyes feeling puffy and irritated while painting, and decided to wait until Spring to pursue further studies, when I can open a window for ventilation.

It was ever so much fun to return to the pencils, which I enjoy immensely.  You may recall (or more likely, not) that one of the cool things about this medium is the way the pencil marks can be turned partly liquid by using a solvent such as oil or mineral spirits.  This makes the process a blend of drawing and painting.  

For example, here is Crowley with just colored pencil laid in:

There are layers -- at least six colors on the face, and four on the hair.  The thing I've had fun learning is how to layer the colors such that when the solvent is added (with a brush), the colors blend in just the right way to create depth:

I've experimented a lot over the past two years with various combinations.  My initial efforts used lighter colors first, then the darker colors on top, but I've more recently discovered that laying down the darker layers first with the lighter on top actually works better.  This is completely opposite of the way I do watercolors (light to dark), and different from acrylic/oil painting (where I put down the middle tones first, then add shadows and highlights).  

Here you can see another example of the wonderful magic that happens when solvent is added to colored pencil -- check out the right wing:

There are six layers here (a white, three grays, a red, and a black).  Look at how dramatically different the pencil colors on top are from the mixed-with-solvent (oil) area in the middle:

They don't even look like the same colors!  Yet there is nothing added to those rough pencil marks other than a bit of oil.  It's so much fun to see what will happen, because often I don't know--I'm just making educated guesses and keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, I guess you have suffered enough, so I'll leave out the gazillion other steps in this process (which involve smoothing, adding more color, doing more blending, and burnishing) and just cut to the final piece, which I'm quite happy with:

Crowley contemplating his Fall from Heaven

Okay, now there must be cute dachshund pics, right?  Right!

Truman went to the groomer this past week, and he looks ever so spiffy now:

When he got home, Pippin expressed some envy of Truman's bandana, so I let him wear it for a while:

He is, of course, as super adorable as always:

 Okay, back to the art!  We did our usual two Zoom sketch sessions, and they weren't half-bad!

The first was a black-and-white photo of a bell, which we liked because of the shadow, and because it was nice and simple (we often choose things are way too complex). I used three gray-toned water-soluble brush pens, and a little bit of pen:

For the second session, we chose a lovely marsh scene which was certainly more complex, and required a lot of preliminary thought into what order to lay down the watercolors.  I also used a little bit of colored pencil here and there:

It was quite the creative week here!

That's all for now.  May you all have a lovely time out there!