The Cormorant Fisherman

Reference: Beautiful photograph by kind permission of the incredibly talented Cris Magsino, thanks so much Cris

Ingredients
1 piece Fabriano Artistico extra white hot press, 14 x 19 jelly beans (280 x 380mm metric), 140lb
Assorted Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer, Derwent Lightfast, Caran D'Ache Luminance, Prismacolor, Stabilo
250ml Water, cool to the touch
50ml OMS, neither shaken nor stirred
Jackson's Masking Fluid
Derwent Blender pencil
Slice
2 litre, Coffee, Columbian, freshly ground

Feeds
One fisherman's family plus cormorant

Method
Place the paper on a clean, dry surface and tape down. Prepare coffee, stare at page, consume coffee, scratch forehead. Repeat.

Pick up pencil, create sketch. Apply masking fluid with a Fab lolly stick prepared earlier (editor: popsicle). Quickly give up any pretence of neatness, coat fisherman and vessel liberally. Under no circumstances sniff the masking fluid. Allow to dry.

Lavishly baste paper with Albrecht Durer blue hues applied wet on wet. Layer. Repeat. Repeat again. And again wet on dry, repeat as necessary... Allow to dry in a fan assisted art studio for approximately 30 minutes.

Build mountains up with dry pencil selection, add OMS and lightly flambé with sunlight. Repeat, layer, repeat. Apply finishing touches and move on down.

With clean fingers and great satisfaction, carefully remove masking fluid and marvel at it's elastic properties. Spend 15 minutes trying to remove from fingers.

Using glassine as a support, move gradually through the scene, using dried pencil to build scene from yonder hills through to pickled pebbles. Blend where a smooth finish is required with Derwent Blender.

Bake at room temperature for approximately 20 hours, or until fisherman has properly set. Garnish with a sprig of basil and serve, enjoy!

Warning
Masking fluid scores highly for entertainment factor, is effective and makes passable bouncy balls, but smells like worn socks infused with fermented Brussel sprout concentrate. Take appropriate precautions at all times.

Follow Up
I have to say, I wanted to use colour pencil throughout on this and tried a few different supplies and techniques on test swatches for the sky blends with varying success. It would have been so easy with water colour, but I settled in the end on pre mixed wet Albrecht Durer applied with a brush. It took more layers to get the values I wanted than it would with watercolour, but worked well enough.

Once that was applied and the mountains were drawn over a few days of short stints, I was quite impressed not to have issues when removing the masking fluid carefully. No rips at all, though I should have given it a shake before use as it was too thick when applying and made my paper look like it had been ravaged by snail slime. Nice.

Drawing the curved bamboo boat was fun, as was that fabulous lamp, the smoke from the pipe, the mist from the trees... so many great textures to play with on this, all whilst trying to maintain the wonderful, moody atmosphere captured so skilfully by Cris. Trying to get the feel of a person through at relatively small scale is a challenge in itself too isn’t it, I feel that we colour pencil practitioners would break breath holding world records with ease whilst working on fine detail in miniature!

And finally the paper.. first time for me using this one and I liked it very much. I know many botany artists have been unhappy with the change to it for their watercolour botanicals, but I enjoyed it for this... it took watercolour, burnishing and Slice tool all in its stride with ease.

So there you have it ladies and gents, I hope you enjoy. 😊