Saturday 28 May 2016

Art Process: 3 ballpoints



There's quite a lot of challenges about, one of which involves not only using  ballpoint pens but using three that are picked by chance, without conscious choice of the artist. 


four-ballpoint drawing

I'd previously tried a four-ballpoint artwork and randomly picked a range of colours that worked well with each other - dark blue, turquoise, pink and orange. It can be very much hit-or-miss. But it's a challenge which often forces an artist to work with colours they might not necessarily choose. 



For this artwork the colours chosen were:
- dark green
- purple
- light green
A white gel pen is used to add highlights to the eyes and other areas


I'd pre-decided that the drawing would be something elfin, in case the colours drawn were 'difficult'. After seeing the ballpoints I'd begun to visualise a lot of leaves with a face emerging from them. I drew the figure initially in pencil onto 150gsm paper, based on the preliminary sketch

 images taken while drawing on bus journey, light very distorted

I had to decide which colour would be dominant and carry through most of the image, a bit like taking the place of the black fine liner I normally use. In this case the dark green seemed the best choice. I used the light green to block in some of the areas with textured marks and solid shapes of leaves. 



Purple was used to give shadow to some edges and add definition to the figure. By darkening areas between the leaves the foliage popped visually. 



Dark green was added to create shadows between the leaves. And finally the white gel pen added reflective light to the pupils and highlighted edges opposite to the darkened edges.

I'm quite pleased considering most of it was drawn during a 50 mile bus journey! And I'd happily try this challenge again.


Tomorrow's blogpost: sub boxes - Lucky Dip Club and Happie Scrappie


Copyright © 2016 by Roisin O'Hagan/bloowabbit
All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.


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