Winston

Acrylic Wash and Pastel Pencils on Spectrum Colourfix Paper

I thought it would be interesting to show you the start and finish of this project I did with the Farleigh Art Group (Surrey). He was such a great character with fabulous folds and creases all over the place. The tricky part of the drawing was the placement of the eyes and nose unit, so drawing is still an essential skill, even for those of you who love the loose and lively approach. The tricky area, where tone and colouring were concerned, was the mouth. We had to create more tonal variety to make it believable. Always bare in mind that, even if your reference shows you its own set of tones and colours, your artwork should be balanced with its own set of tones to carry it off. Our illustration was bound to be lighter and unfinished with this combination. 

The first stage consists of a loose pastel line sketch and an acrylic wash with a limited mid tone palette. As you can see, it is enough to frighten any artist so my group displayed a variety of zig-zag smiles at this stage. However, when one adds the pastel layer, which is more controlled and brings in those light creamy tints, then the picture comes to life. One can also be selective as to how much you add. Note that the ears have no pastel finish at all.

I really love this combination. I learn something new each time.