Friday 27 March 2009

Charnwood Forest

carbon pencil sketch, detail, Vivien Blackburn

This is a detail of a sketch of that flooded quarry shown in my last post - you can see the whole sketch here

Carbon pencil isn't something I use very often as it isn't easy to get soft greys. This image called for intense blacks though and it worked quite well. I don't know what I've done with my little battery operated eraser so none of the drawing is done by drawing back into the darks with an eraser - my normal way of working.

Because the water level is high (it's very deep) and the rocks off to the left were in shadow, it wasn't possible to see any detail in the rocks. I concentrated on the reflections, tangled patterns and the assymetric arrangement of lights and darks .

It's on a rich cream cartridge paper (A4) that's very hard to scan and colour match.

I like cream paper to draw on - it isn't as stark as white - how about you?

11 comments:

Making A Mark said...

Me too - I much prefer it - you don't get the glare you do with white. Both my Moleskine and Daler Rowney sketchbooks have cream paper (different weights)

I think this location is going to be very interesting. That sketch is a very good start.

Jeanette Jobson said...

This has lots of depth to it. You can sense the undergrowth and darkness of the place.

Cream paper adds something to a drawing. It gives it almost a look of the past, especially with this subject.

Sarah said...

oooh, moody and mysterious, this place will go well with those pollarded willows of yours.

Lindsay said...

All that erosion make for some interesting line work. I too like the cream paper.

Anonymous said...

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I recently was tagged with the "Fabulous Blog Award", and have now tagged this blog as a way to recommend it to others. Pass on the honor, if you are so inclined, and please take it as a compliment on your work and willingness to share it with others.

vivien said...

it will go with the willows :>)

I've been out today with the camera looking at another flooded quarry, a much bigger one and they will both be good places to work.

vivien said...

diddams - interesting work on your blog :>)

Laura Frankstone said...

I love the tremendous variety of mark in this sketch, Vivien. I prefer white paper to cream paper. I find the Moleskine paper color/noncolor very distracting. I do like toned paper in a brown paper bag color, though---so I gravitate toward the extremes of tonality and not toward the creamy middle.

Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen said...

there is so mych I like about this...the darkness of the medium(which suits the quarry so well), the chopice of paper, the linework and shapes. I enjoy dark carbon work(maybe suits my personlaity, hie hie) and I love both white paper and more creamier. With fresh watercolour, I prefer the cripsness of extra white Fabriano and with something like you've done here, I'd also go for this moodier creamy paper.
Ronell

vivien said...

Laura and Ronell thanks :>)

I like the brown paper bag colour paper too Laura - a lot of the lino prints of the pollarded oak were on that colour.

Yes, with watercolour I agree Ronell - I like crisp white paper so that colours read true and are luminous.

Anonymous said...

Rich, moody and dark - I would love to visit and see the area RL. Cream paper? Lovely :-)