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 Watch this space carefully... | This portrait was a bit of an experiment for me. I have purchased a really nice set of Prismacolor pencils which have intense pigment and are lovely to use. I've tried pastel paper and watercolour paper but for this piece I wanted to achieve a greater level of detail. So I chose Bristol board as my surface which has a smooth, hard white surface but because of the lack of 'tooth', laying down the colours to the depth and intensity I required took quite a bit of work. But having practiced a bit and with the help of the 'colourless blender' pencil (basically a coloured pencil with no pigment in it)I managed to achieve what I wanted. |
 | Step 1 Starting with a very light pencil sketch with hardly any detail, as usual I began working from left to right, top to bottom. I wasn't sure if this was going to work or not until I reached this stage so I'm already well into the portrait before I decided to take the first photograph. Plenty of time to see how it developed from here though. Photographing indoors using artificial light means the colours depicted here are not very true unfortunately. |
 | Step 2 Continuing on, I'm using very light washes of colour, gradually building up the layers until I get the depth of tone and colour I want. It's important to try to get as even a wash of colour as possible, overlapping the pencil strokes. I work on one defined area at a time, for example one feather or one arm. Once I'm certain that an area is how I want it, I use the colourless blender pencil in strokes diagonal to the pencil marks, to blend the area. This burnishes the surface too, giving a smooth graduated wash which won't smudge any further. I've also pushed some of the pigment out at the ends of the feathers to get rid of the very hard edges. |
 | Step 3 In this section you can see I've gone back to complete the other side of the face. I don't blend the face at this stage as there is going to be a few strands of hair and their shadows to add later. Once blended and burnished, it's difficult to add more pigment. For the hair I begin with an under painting of several colours. Blues, browns and reds have been lightly put in before adding the black. Keeping my pencil strokes in the direction I want the hair, working lightly, hairlike effects begin to appear as more and more pigment is laid down. |
 | Step 4 You can see here how the hair has been worked and finally blended. Again I've pushed some of the pigment out at the edges to blur it a little. I've completed the neck area too. Neither the face or neck have been blended yet. |
 | Step 5 Now I'm on to the garment, I've been able to finish blending and burnishing the face. I decided at this stage to add a horse motif to the fabric. Quite tricky to work out how it is distorted by the folds in the cloth. |
| Step 6 You can see here how I've developed the folds in the fabric, keeping in mind the light direction and the more intense shadow to the second arm brings it together. A bit of touching in and a few shadows complete the picture. |
| Click here to view more information about this artwork | |
| Click here for more artworks in progress by Peter Williams | |
