These were highly unplanned. I was routing around in Matt's art box and found powder inks. So I had a little go. I thought they gave a nice effect for a background, if too brighter colours. I still enjoyed taking a break from the coloured pencils for a night.

Experementing again with the coloured pencils trying to get the right texture and marks. I have begun to transfer what I've learnt from the botanical illustrations into animals. I have also started experementing in ways to mix the pencil in with the colour, as this is what I am hoping to achieve at the end of this project. After I did the girraffe drawing with colour I realised that it is not going to be as easy to introduce colour into every illustration. I do really like the combination of coloured pencil and pencil/graphite.
I am gonig to practice this combination over and over until I get some good quality illustrations. I think the process I went through to get to where I am now was challenging but it was deffinalty the right way to go for my learning style. I am very glad that I have chosen this project to work on as it has changed the direction of my work, deffinatly for the better. I beleive my illustrations are much more captivating with colour and the more I practice the more I can get them to a proffestional standard.

I started using my proffesional coloured pencils rather than the standard ones you get at Smiths. I'm not sure whether they are particulary different, but I thought they felt softer to use compared to the other ones. The colour difference isn't greatly noticable, although these have brighter vibrancy and you dont get that waxy texture as easily as you dont have to press so hard to get the darker colour your after. I am really enjoying using coloured pencils more as the project goes on.

My new artist coloured pencils have arrived! Lets see how much better they are to the childrens coloured pencils I have been using.

One line drawings

I have been experimenting with different ways of drawing with coloured pencils. I tried drawing images without taking my pencil off the paper. This has a very nice effect especially in the bottom image of the flower and butterfly. It's not my usual drawing style or my usual drawing material but I still really enjoyed doing this and I felt comfortable and not daunted. I think it has done be good to produce drawings that are loose and flowing rather than my usual tight rejimented drawings.

To get better at using coloured pencils I decided to draw just with the coloured pencils and not try and include my normal drawing just yet. By using just coloured pencil it really shows the quality that can be produced. I would like to do more of this as it is helping me to get more skilled at using this medium particulary bldending and shading.

Artists

Julia Randall






Katja Turnsek

Botanical video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxL26fIou5o

This is a video briefly expalining how to create botanical illustrations with coloured pencils. The visuals arn't that great as she hasn't got the exposure correct on the camera shes using but just listening to what she said you understand what she is going on about. I find this video pretty useful.

Tips for using coloured pencils

As I am focusing on using coloured pencils, I have done some more research on how to use them effectively. To do this I have looked on the internet for websites that can help me learn more about them. I find looking on the internet reletively easy as it is usually quick to find what you are looking for.



Use colored pencils with a large amount of pigment. These will be more expensive, but brighter and will blend better than the cheaper brands. Less expensive colored pencils contain fillers to cut down on pigment costs and result in washed out colors and layering

Learn the correct colored pencil technique. Crosshatching, hatching, burnishing and scrumbling all play important roles in drawing with colored pencils. Knowing when and how to use these and other methods is half the battle when using colored pencils.

Minimize wax bloom. Wax bloom appears when your drawing surface is overworked or heavily burnished. This layer of wax will rise to the surface and cloud your drawing, tarnishing its original brilliance. To fix, simply wipe off the layer of wax and apply a coat or two of fixative.

Master the art of blending. There are many different methods to blend colored pencil, all of which can be used to create different effects. Solvent markers, blender pencils and blending stumps are all useful in colored pencil technique, and provide interesting textures

Choose the right paper. Depending on how smooth or grainy you want your art to be, choose a paper with a fine to medium tooth. The quality of the paper is also important as cheaper paper will not hold layers and color as well as more expensive paper.

Colour wheel

Primary colours

In traditional colour theory, these are the 3 pigmant colours that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colours. All other colours are derrived from these hues.



Secondary colours


These are the colours formed by micing the primary colours.




Teritary colours



These are the colours formed by mixing the primary and secondary colours.

I am VERY pleased withhow the butterfly photos turned out. I actually didn't use any extention tubes, I just percevered with the macro lens and finally managed to get closer to my subjects after alot of time and fiddling around.
The process in getting a quality macro photograph is very challenging. I have found that you need incredible patience and time to produce around 3 out of 50 good photos. I am still keep to learn more about photography, macro photography inparticular.

Water colour

After messing around with coloured pencils, the other material that I wanted to try adding to my work was water colour. I really like the texture and how easy it is to blend the colours together. You can also achieve really nice vibrant colours. Instead of only adding colour to a section of my drawing, I tried using colour all over. I think this is quite effective in this illustration.
I have also had feedback from friends that the colours work really well.



These are two more experements. The top one uses colour in certain sections like I did with the coloured pencil. I quite like this as it give a nice texture to the rabbits fur, although I think that coloured pencils might be a better material to use for that type of thing.
The second illustration went wrong. I got carried away with the pencil and so when the colour was applied it could not be seen very well as it was going into pencil rather than a lighter background.
I have decided that water colour is not the rout I wish to go down with my work. I enjoy using water colours, however I prefer the control I have when using coloured pencils.

Coloured pencils

I started experementing more with coloured pencils. I found them pretty hard to use at first because I'm used to the different variations of pencils from H numbers to B numbers whereas coloured pencils are all the same and very hard. This made shading a different experience to what I'm used to.


This was one of my first attempts at using coloured pencils. It is quite obvious that I had a problem with shading, and getting the confidence to press harder and make stronger marks.



This was a later attempt. I started to accept that the coloured pencils wern't going to meraculously become softer and so started to make bolder marks. I'm quite pleased with the results of this. I perticulary like the fact that I havn't over used the coloured pencil, just using it to sugest the colour on the animal.

experementing with colour

I wanted to learn how to add colour efficiently to my drawings as they looked plain and not very inventive. I started to go into colour towards the start of this project however I decided I want to go deeper and hopefully find a comfortable, and consistant way of using colour in my illustrations. I made some little experements to help me decide which material would work best with pencil and my drawing style.



I decided I liked the texture of the water colours, and I appriciated the variation I could produce with the coloured pencils.