Intending to write about my latest drawing session, having taken photos along the way, I discover when I go to put them on my computer that I've forgotten about documenting the previous drawing session. Yes, I am a wayward blogger, but I will mend my ways!
So this next bit I'm having to write purely from drawing conclusions from the photos I'd left on my camera and the record I keep of how long it all took.
This session takes 30 minutes, the obligatory coffee break and then a sitting of 1 hour and 40 minutes and this is how it approximately goes...
Once again my attention has shifted to another area of the drawing... well, my excuse is I want to feel like I'm making some progress and need to get away from drawing the water for a while so I can keep this whole project interesting for myself.
And so I tackle a small koi fish swimming deeper in the water and near the nose of the larger fish from the last session. I start with trying to capture the movement of the tail, blending the orange and white of the tail with the blues and greens of the water. This is achieved by bringing the colours close to but not touching one another and then blending with the stumper and a little Chinese white.
Here I've avoided drawing a clear outline or shape to suggest movement.
For the next step I take the deep chrome (darker orange) pencil and fill in an area to the right of the tail to emphasize the twist in the moving tailfin.
The lighter part of the fish is of course the chrome pencil and again some white to blend the edges together.
At this point I step back and take a look at what I'm drawing - important to keep doing this from time to time to make sure that everything is looking convincing!
I'll be going back over all the water at a later stage to get the right colour and depth. It seems odd to wait but I'm finding it a bit difficult to get to grips with this drawing and so want to have a good general view of things before I decide where improvements are needed. My usual method is to get the details right straight away, working from the top lefthand corner, but as this drawing is of mostly one subject (water!) I need to see it as an almost finished "whole" before I can get everything balanced. We'll see if this new method works....
Anyway, as I said, I step back and scrutinize the drawing and notice an eddy of water over the tail of the previously drawn Koi fish. I quickly draw this in with the help of my trusted Chinese white pencil. It's just a question of applying a few strokes, blending the water and the orange and black of the fish together... looking goooood!
Some more white on the crests of the ripples in the water helps lift them up and add light where needed.
A touch more prussian blue between the ripples and the water starts to come to life.
But I must quit being so easily distracted! I return to the intended subject and lightly shade in the darker areas of the large Koi fish near the lower lefthand corner, using the middle chrome pencil. I pay attention here to the darker lines of the fins, leaning harder on the pencil in those areas.
Then, using spectrum orange I mark, in lines, the shadows of the scales on the lower side of the fish and the darker shading of the lower fin.
I draw in the details of the head, leaving the appropriate areas white where light falls along the fish's back and head. Using ivory black I lightly mark in the eye. A touch of gold along the dorsal fin and towards the tail gives more depth to the ridge along the fish's back.
Finally, using gunmetal grey I pencil in some shadow along the lower side of the fish, add more gold along the upper side of the fish and do some more blending, seemingly undoing a lot of the detail of the scales... Fear not! This will be rectified later on. I know I keep saying that, but it will... you'll see! Have a little faith! A few more dots of grey here and there and we have another fish, and I am done for the day.
The drawing has taken 11 hours and 10 minutes so far. It seems I'm making some progress!
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