Neil McCarthy (1932-1985) was one of those actors everyone recognises but whose name nobody knows.…
Testing Coloured Pencil Solvent On Neil McCarthy
It’s been a day for experimentation today. After reading the Alyona Nickelsen book, I thought I really should give solvents a go with coloured pencils. But rather than using the powder she’s so keen on, which would have meant me also having to buy aerosol fixatives and working outside, I thought I’d try some other ideas. So I bought some coloured pencil blender pens and a small bottle of pencil blending medium. To test them out, I picked out what’s probably my worst coloured pencil painting to date, the portrait of Neil McCarthy.
I started with the pens, blending over the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. I guess there’s a little blending there but it’s hard to see with it being over such small areas. So I moved in to the rest of the face, starting in the top left of the forehead. And I got bored pretty quickly, so moved on to the solvent. I started applying it with a small brush but again got bored and moved on to something bigger. And I eventually covered the trace, then the shirt, hair and background.
And the results? Well, something has changed. I guess it’s looking more like paint and less like coloured pencil but the change isn’t as big as I was hoping for. If anything, the granulation I can see in the new version makes this look like it was painted using the Artgraf blocks. Some of the brightest, yellow bits in Neil’s face still look too bright – there’s not been much reversion to the mean in the values.
So not a resounding success, but does that mean I was doing something wrong? Was I working too fast? With too big a brush? With too much solvent in the brush? Too little? Or was my starting painting just a bit too “scratchy” for the solvent? And what about the pens? Judging by the top left corner, they may be better at blending the colour than the solvent was. Or, again, is that just down to the pens working on a smaller scale?
So many questions. I’m going to have to keep exploring. Maybe with another old painting. Or maybe on a new painting, although if it looks brilliant before any blending I’m leaving it as it is!
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