Felicia In Inktense Pencil

The plan was to draw Felicia freehand rather than dividing the paper and source photo into grids.  I managed to put down just a couple of lines before giving up and reaching for the ruler.  Using a grid is going to be mildly embarassing if I make it into Drawers Off.

For colours today, I used chilli red, fuchsia, Shiraz, bright blue and baked Earth.  I wanted a green in there too but, rather than reaching for my usual leaf green I thought I’d try something different.  I started with apple green as it was the longest of my green pencils but quickly decided it was too bright (even for me) so switched to field green, another rarely used green.  Looking at the results, I’m wondering whether field and apple greens just aren’t up to the task for figure drawing and whether I should just stick to leaf green, with the occasional teal green if I have lots of brown to balance it.  I also used some deep indigo for outlines after looking back at Wake Up Kevin, but this time I applied indigo before adding water.

For Felicia’s hair, I put in one of the reds and one of the blues and then later some indigo.  I think it worked out well enough, harmonising better with the rest of the painting than if I just plucked out some grey or brown.

I was brave including a face and two hands and actually adding some features to the face.  I think the left hand and face are just about OK but the right hand isn’t.

The indigo outline is different.  Personally I don’t think it works.  It makes Felicia look like a 2D cutout, detracting from all the good work I’ve done in making her three dimensional.  Comparing to Wake Up Kevin, I think indigo edges must work better for dark coloured compositions.  And maybe better if the edges are all straightened.

Then there’s the smudging on Felicia’s left arm.  I’m not sure how this happened but I like it.  I liked the smudge (and disliked everything else) so much that I tried smudging in other areas without success.  Still, the smudge has been mired as a possible dutire idea to create some movement and energy.  While in an experimental mood, I also dropped some water onto Felicia in places to see whether it could create some interesting cauliflowers.  There is one at the top of her right thigh that looks interesting but, I can’t lie, I can’t remember whether that was the result of one of my experimental drips.

Overall, I think this is a flop, so it won’t be going up for sale.  Why?  Well there’s  the right hand, the 2D effect of the indigo edges, a muscle above the right breast that I can see is missing, the right nipple being in the wrong place, a funny concave edge at the top of the left thigh.  No, not a good day at the office today.  If I’d done this painting two or three years ago, I might instead be celebrating: m6 standards a4 gradually creeping upwards.  Hopefully the rain will all be gone tomorrow and I can get back to watercolour, otherwise I might just take the day off.