The Giant, Cerne Abbas, Dorset
STAGE 1 of any drawing for me is extremely soothing and calming. I put on the main colours very softly, making repetitive strokes from the top right to the bottom left. The colours slowly build up, almost imperceptively, until the cartridge paper is covered. There are no drawn lines to seperate the areas of colour. Everything is left very fluid until the last stages of the drawing.
Some highlights and lowlights in the sky are made in STAGE 2. In this case using differing hues of blue, from soft indigo on the periphary to baby blue nearer the still undefined horizon.
STAGES 3 and 4 are essential to vary and expand the colour range used in the main areas. In this case, I introduced reds, maroons, oranges, yellows, ochres and greens in the land area; purple in the sky.
Here the notes I had made, along with the initial sketches made at the scene, start to be crucial to evoke the mood, atmosphere and weather I had observed. I am not merely reproducing a physical view. For this picture of The Giant, I had written 'crystal clear, crisp; cold wind; peaceful warmth in the sun; church bells from the village; rich autumnal colours of trees echoed on hillside. Hazy white, bouncing light on hillside edge on right (towards sun) Milky blue/white on left as land fades into distance. Ancient; timeless.'
By STAGE 5, the land is more solid but the sky is more ethereal. I never draw lines as I do not want to fix things firmly yet. I still want to be able to radically alter a picture by more layers of colour or by using a putty rubber to erase or lighten certain areas. This is a dangerous stage and I usually leave a picture to 'cook', to gain a life of its own, to speak to me independently of my initial sketches and notes.
Many pictures do not progress beyond this 'cooking' process. Others are radically altered. It can be a very frustrating time, fine-tuning one minute and then drastically changing some basic shapes.
This occurred in this picture. The hillside had become too much of a solid block, like a wall and the sky was too bland. The whole thing was unbalanced. I tackled the sky first by raying out the whispy mare's tails on the right, as they had been in the original sketch. The land was more of a problem and my putty rubber became very busy! The land mass changed from a partial hillside to the complete, rounded hill, fading into the distance on the left, back to a partial hillside. The position of the giant changed twice!
The last things to be added were the trees, to add scale, echo the hillside colours and draw the eye to The Giant. There was also a last minute titivation of The Giant, to make it sink more into the hillside, to look more carved out of the underlying chalk of the hill and an integral part of the view, as it is in reality.
Thank you for your interest in this gallery, please browse my other galleries to see more finished coloured crayon pictures.
Enjoy the views!
Thank you.
Some highlights and lowlights in the sky are made in STAGE 2. In this case using differing hues of blue, from soft indigo on the periphary to baby blue nearer the still undefined horizon.
STAGES 3 and 4 are essential to vary and expand the colour range used in the main areas. In this case, I introduced reds, maroons, oranges, yellows, ochres and greens in the land area; purple in the sky.
Here the notes I had made, along with the initial sketches made at the scene, start to be crucial to evoke the mood, atmosphere and weather I had observed. I am not merely reproducing a physical view. For this picture of The Giant, I had written 'crystal clear, crisp; cold wind; peaceful warmth in the sun; church bells from the village; rich autumnal colours of trees echoed on hillside. Hazy white, bouncing light on hillside edge on right (towards sun) Milky blue/white on left as land fades into distance. Ancient; timeless.'
By STAGE 5, the land is more solid but the sky is more ethereal. I never draw lines as I do not want to fix things firmly yet. I still want to be able to radically alter a picture by more layers of colour or by using a putty rubber to erase or lighten certain areas. This is a dangerous stage and I usually leave a picture to 'cook', to gain a life of its own, to speak to me independently of my initial sketches and notes.
Many pictures do not progress beyond this 'cooking' process. Others are radically altered. It can be a very frustrating time, fine-tuning one minute and then drastically changing some basic shapes.
This occurred in this picture. The hillside had become too much of a solid block, like a wall and the sky was too bland. The whole thing was unbalanced. I tackled the sky first by raying out the whispy mare's tails on the right, as they had been in the original sketch. The land was more of a problem and my putty rubber became very busy! The land mass changed from a partial hillside to the complete, rounded hill, fading into the distance on the left, back to a partial hillside. The position of the giant changed twice!
The last things to be added were the trees, to add scale, echo the hillside colours and draw the eye to The Giant. There was also a last minute titivation of The Giant, to make it sink more into the hillside, to look more carved out of the underlying chalk of the hill and an integral part of the view, as it is in reality.
Thank you for your interest in this gallery, please browse my other galleries to see more finished coloured crayon pictures.
Enjoy the views!
Thank you.
