Treecolor Twist
COLOUR PENCIL
Title: Treecolor Twist
Derwent Lightfast Hot Press, 305 x 405mm, 300gsm, Caran d’Ache Luminance, Museum Aquarelle
Reference: my own, with camera in hand and my very own little legs moving me to a nearby woodland
When I started with art 3 years ago, I was thrilled to be creating and I relished the challenge of producing something recognisable. Bonus points were awarded if my phone identified the subject matter when photographing finished work. Thinking about style seemed a luxury I could not afford.
Without having an artistic background at all, style was secondary to learning techniques, materials and so on for me. So I lived, breathed, bought and inhaled colour pencils day by day, month by month. I found myself naturally gravitating towards attempting to make my drawings realistic as best I could, with some more successful than others.
At some point, I became a little locked in to that. I struggle generally to loosen up artistically and retain as much flexibility as I would like in my approach, particularly with colour pencils. As a result, I started learning other media to broaden my horizons. When I started creating, I had no benchmark for what I could do and experimenting seemed to hold no risks... as I continued on my path and set higher expectations for myself, it seemed to become riskier to try new approaches and vary from something I have had some success with. This is very much against my nature as I love to experiment.
And so this drawing, for better or worse, is me reminding myself to keep experimenting, to throw caution to the wind, to keep trying new things and I will show it despite having some misgivings. Rather than focus on detail, I have tried to softly capture the light and colours of this beautiful woodland scene, to give a sense of the towering trees, the shadowed canopy and the low, dazzling rays of light.
So there you have it. I do not know how to feel about this piece yet, but it is done! Whilst it threatened to make me prematurely bald at points, I survived with my flowing locks and sanity intact, and I have at least had some fun experimenting and seeing what worked for me and what did not, both of which I take value from.
Museum Aquarelles were used wet on wet to underpaint the sky and ground, then lashings of dry Luminance the rest of the way. I hope you enjoy it 😊

