Water, Water Everywhere...

Another day, another bash at getting this drawing completed. In keeping with my wandering attention I decide to pay some to a tiny, light-coloured fish at the top of the drawing and (mostly) the surrounding water. Well, it has to be done, and I feel like using the blues and greens. So here goes...

I apply a layer of white (yes, Chinese - yawn!) to the area marked out for the little fish. It has a very light colour, really just whitish with a tinge of blue. I use prussian blue, a thin layer of primrose yellow which I subdue with more white, and then some sky blue and more white and blend them all together. A vague hint of light orange (chrome) suffices for around the nose area of the fish.

But the attention it will wander, so I start working on the surrounding water.

Sticking to the usual sequence of colours I apply a layer of  spruce green, drawing in horizontal strokes and using the side of the pencil tip. Always make sure to keep the tips of the coloured pencils well-sharpened - this gives more surface to draw/shade with and also prevents the paper from getting scratched and dented by the wood of the pencil, as will happen if allowed to become blunt.

Taking the stumper I blend the colour into the paper using downward strokes. (This is a little difficult to see in the photo to the left, but there's, as yet, little pigment on the paper. However, it does help to even everything out).

Again, using horizontal strokes and the side of the pencil I make a layer of oriental blue over the previous layer.

The stumper is once more useful in blending the colours together in the same way. Notice how the whiter areas in the grain of the paper are beginning to fill with pigment.

Now I mix in a little orange chrome near the tail of a large fish to the left. There's just an impression of a fish swimming underneath in the depths of the water and a slight blend of orange will suffice to show this.

Drawing, like life, is one big experiment from which we learn as we go along, so not satisfied with the results after adding layers of colour one-by-one I get impatient and decide to apply the rest of the colours - juniper green, prussian blue and blue grey - on top of each other (all horizontally) without blending in between.

This is much more satisfying! Yes, here comes the Chinese white again - it's a tried and trusted device so why change tactics now?! After sharpening the white pencil once again (there'll be nothing left of it soon) I shade in strokes at an angle to the colour layer.




There's enough pigment now to blend the colours nicely together and achieve a much smoother surface. I will return to this again later to create even more depth.

There's a clear division between the  water surrounding the small fish at the top and the water below, so this area will need lots more blending and more colour.

Time to sharpen the white pencil again. I really will have to invest in a bin! :-)

Using the white I make vertical strokes, dragging the colour from the top down into the paler area below.
Then, to further obscure the line between the two areas I re-apply all the normal sequence of colours to the whole area, blending them together with the stumper and more Chinese white, until the two areas become one homogeneous colour. Yay! We have water!

Time to move on to bigger fish - literally! It's very important to keep your drawing clean as you work. You'd be surprised how quickly a drawing can become grubby just from leaning on it with your arm. A great solution is to work with your hand resting on another clean sheet of paper - this protects the underlying drawing and prevents white areas from becoming smudged.

Of course, not being in the habit of always practicing what I preach (well, I never said I was perfect or had all the answers!) I forgot to do this this time. Oh well, there's always the eraser to resort to - and I do! I clean up inside the lines of a large Koi fish which is the next fish I'm going to draw. Don't be tempted to leave the cleaning and add colour on grubby paper - it will show through and you will be sorry!

With prussian blue I sketch in the outlines of the patches on the fish's back. Using light grey I add the shaded detail on the side fins. Things are moving along!

It's 1 hour and 15 minutes later (12 hours and 25 minutes in total) and this is the drawing so far - "water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"... definitely time for a nice cup of tea!

Of a Wayward Blogger and Some Progress

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!

Of Staying Power, Snacks and Ripples

The next sitting at this drawing took 1 hour. I was finding the area of turbulent water in the top righthand corner a bit daunting and wasn't sure how to tackle it successfully, so I decided to fill in a few of the surrounding areas of calmer water first. Perhaps this would give me more of a grip on things.

I stick to the established sequence of colours to keep the result consistent, first applying a light layer of spruce green, followed by oriental blue, juniper green, Prussian blue and blue grey, using my stumper at en angle between layers to blend the colours together. I then apply the usual layer of Chinese white to get a more even blend. This will help to increase the depth of colour when I add more colour layers later on.

I also use a little orange chrome and primrose yellow to suggest the movement of another koi fish deeper down in the water, making sure to blend the edges well into the surrounding water colours. If I were to leave the edges of this fish too sharp it would appear closer to the surface of the water  - think about how murky things looks when lying in deep water.

Again, it's important to blend the colours together and I do this by applying Chinese white at an angle to the colours.

Having to use the same colours over and over and all this blending seems a bit boring... but it will pay off in the end (I hope!).

I use the prussian blue to mark some darker areas in the water, making sure to leave the lighter areas white for the time being, really just to remind myself where I have to pay attention to the movement of the water and the fall of light.

I'm skirting around the difficult part of the drawing at this point. I'm a bit afraid of the ripples in the water, thinking I'll never get them to look right... so I decide to fill in another koi fish, a pale one that's swimming quite deep off to the left. Well avoidance is often the best tactic! So, I'm a coward - I'll muster up some courage a bit later!

I use orange chrome for the main body of the fish and highlight the ridge of the koi's back with some deep chrome.

Ok, it's time for a snack! Well I need to feed my staying power and a nice, sweet, fruity, biscuity snack is just the thing! Bear with me please - at this early stage this is as much a mental battle as a matter of skill. Well how would you feel if your only weapons were a coloured pencil and a few stumpers?! I need my snack!

Suitably fortified I apply a layer of spruce green and oriental blue to the area of water just below the fish. I then take my stumper and blend the lower side of the fish and the water together, again suggesting depth and movement. I've left some spots of white where there are some floating "bits" in the water and will define these better at a later stage.
Again, I apply the usual layers of colour, blending in between layers.

My attention moves at last to the turbulent area where a few fish are moving about in the water. Using blue grey I pencil in some of the darker ripples, leaving the lighter areas white.

What a mess! But I shall carry on, in the uncertain knowledge that this might turn out ok in the end. "Just stick at it!", I tell myself - and I listen - for a while.

I take the spruce green and draw indiscriminately right across all the shaded areas I've just created, but lightly, so as not to destroy it completely. Don't panic, it's going to be alright!

But here comes the Chinese white again, blending everything together... I can barely see what's underneath now, but it's still all there so...

...taking the spruce green in hand I once again fill in the darker areas. NOW we're getting somewhere!

Well, it does look quite rough still, but things are progressing and I'm beginning to think that this just might work, which gives me a boost to carry on for a little while longer. One hour has gone by. I'm off to have a cup of coffee which I don't dare drink anywhere in the vicinity of my drawing, so I head into the other room to my laptop and make a treasury for my Etsy shop. You can take a look, if you like, right here.

Having spent way too long putting this together, mainly because I accidentally clicked everything away and had to start again, I head back to the task at hand.

I define more of the darker ripples in the water and add the usual sequence of colours. I figure I'll do a huge area of water in this way and add darker areas and more definition later on.

I fill in the head of another koi fish, which helps with getting a real grip on the water. The right side of the koi's body is shaded darker, using a blue grey and deep vermillion blend.

I use an eraser to lighten the highest ripples of water and then start to fill in some more detail on the larger koi fish to the right. I use orange chrome for the lighter area to the left of the koi's body and deep vermillion and deep chrome for the darker right side. The lighter area along the ridge of the koi's back is primrose yellow, blended into the orange at the edges. Ivory black serves to fill in the dark patches on the koi's back.

That's another 35 minutes of drawing, adding up in total to 9 hours and 30 minutes on this drawing so far. I'm off for tea and snacks!... More later...

Capturing water

It's not the easiest thing in the world to capture water - and certainly not with coloured pencils! But looking closely at the task at hand reveals that it's more a question of colour than you would expect when you first think of water. It's also, however, a question of leaving colour out, at exactly the right spots, or rather the right ripples, to create a realistic effect. Hence the importance of sticking as close as possible to the shapes you observe as you draw. Only then will the final drawing look like the real thing.

At first it will seem like a mess and will come to nothing, but "patience grasshopper!", "everything comes to he who waits" and all that.

Here I've just started to introduce a few ripples in the surface of the water. In this case it's difficult to know exactly where to leave some white space for light as I'd like to make the water a little more interesting than in the photograph I've taken.

We'll see how I manage this as I go along, so I concentrate on the water surrounding the ripples first and will try to fill in the detail of the movement in the water at a later stage. So, for the moment I just apply some prussian blue and blue grey to roughly mark out the lines and shapes of the surface water.

I can't seem to get to grips with those eddies just yet so after some initial filling in and playing about with various shades of blue, using the same colours as I've been using so far, I give up for the moment.

Yeah, yeah! "Get on with it!", I hear you say. Well, it's all very well for you to talk - you are not staring at a virtually blank sheet of paper faced with the daunting task of filling it with sometimes reflecting, mostly murky water and teeming koi fish! "This needs time to unfold naturally... so don't disturb the process!", she says, trying feebly to disguise her very haphazard method of working!

Anyway, I decide to move on to some bigger fish! Here I lightly sketch in the main lines and shadows using deep chrome, making sure to leave the areas where the light falls white, just for now. This will make things easier! I'll get back to those ripples and reflections when things start falling together a little better. There's a long way to go, but this drawing just might work out.

Koi fish have those very recognisable black patches and spots, so the next step is to fill some of those in, first using mars black and then ivory black for the darker areas.

This sitting has taken 3 hours (7 hrs and 55 mins. in total) and then life interrupts. I hope I get a bit more accomplished next time... but that's another kettle of fish!...

The 1st Fish

At last I can get started with the fun part, the coloured pencils! I begin applying colour from the top lefthand corner, mostly to avoid inadvertently smudging the colours with my hand or sleeve as I work. Later when I need to go back to parts of the drawing to add more colour I will place a piece of paper under my hand and lean on this while drawing for the same reason. Coloured pencils are easily smudged and the details of a drawing can very easily be blurred without the proper care.

The first thing I need to draw is a small corner of water. I take 5 colours which I think I will need to produce the right effect, plus Chinese white to help blend everything together and achieve some depth. I use spruce green to start with using even strokes and filing up the whole corner area. I then go over this with a layer of oriental blue and use a blending stump to blend the two colours evenly together. I use the stumper at an angle to the direction of the coloured pencil so the colours blend well. This is followed by layers of juniper green, prussian blue and blue grey, each time using the blending stump to mix the colours.

At this point the corner is an even shade approaching the basic colour of the water that I'm aiming for, but there are of course shadows in the water, so I need to apply some of the darker colours to the shadowy areas (in this case in the top lefthand corner). I add more prussian blue and blue grey and once again use some Chinese white to blend the colours and get the desired effect.

I have no doubt that this will need more attention later, but next I want to start drawing the first fish.

I lightly sketch in the black patches on the koi fish using mars black, and with primrose yellow and flesh pink colour the areas where light falls on the fish's back, carefully following the shapes in the photograph.

I then fill in the rest of the fish, again lightly, with orange chrome and use deep chrome for the darker orange areas. There's an area of shadow where the underside of the fish fades into the water which I colour in using storm grey, again making sure to blend the orange and grey well with a blending stump.




 

The black patches on the fish need more depth, so I use Delft blue, again colouring according to the shapes in the photograph, followed by ivory black.

For the moment I feel I've paid enough attention to the fish. The fin and lower side will need more colour and more blending when I've done the surrounding water. Using the same colours as for the water in the corner I colour around the fish, mixing the pencils in the same way.

It's important to apply the lighter colours first as they can easily be darkened using darker colours or by applying more pressure to the pencil. A dark colour cannot be easily lightened, without the use of an eraser, sometimes causing damage to the surface of the paper.

This photo shows how I use the blending stump, making strokes at an angle to the coloured pencil strokes.

After 4 hours and 55 minutes this is the result so far. There's lots more work to do!