CP Lessons Learned

After being sick for so long, I finally finished this drawing, 14" x 11" colored pencil on Strathmore Bristol vellum. This is just a snapshot and has a lot of glare; I will probably get a scan at some point in the next few weeks.

I really struggled with the texture of the paper because I tend to work very fast, and do not have patience to fill in all of those tiny white spaces. I learned from doing this piece that I prefer to either work on really smooth paper (like Strathmore Bristol plate), or a highly textured sanded surface, which allows for a smoother overall finish because the pigment seems to stick to the surface more.

Colored Pencil Portrait In Progress

Here's an update on my colored pencil portrait. Things are going very slowly, partly because I am only working an hour a day on this. I forgot to mention in my last post that this drawing is on regular paper, whereas I had been working on sanded paper for several of my more recent colored pencil drawings. In particular, I am working on Strathmore Bristol Vellum, which has a fine tooth texture. However, the grain does tend to show unless you really keep the pencil point sharp at all time to move in between all of the grooves of the paper. Personally, I get very lost in details if I work this closely (or slowly), so I just let some of the natural texture of the paper show. A few years ago I did a few pieces on Strathmore Bristol Plate, which is really smooth with an extremely fine texture, and I found that this gave a smoother look, though seemingly took fewer layers of color and was less forgiving.