Blog for Shirley Lawrence Bellows

I started this Coloured Pencil piece for the March demonstration I did at our local art gallery, The Loft Gallery.

The pencils are Prismacolour, which are wax based and the paper is black Tiziano.

Here is the first pencil sketch on the paper:

Next I started putting on the white pencil where the image was going to be the lightest whether it would stay completely white or not. This is a base layer that is necessary to cover the black otherwise other colours will not be vibrant.

Note that any areas that will be shadowed or not bright colours are only lightly marked with the white pencil.

Now I have started to add some colour over the white and even into the plain black paper. Note that the colour on the black paper stays rich and darker for contrast.

More colour continues to be added: The first greens and browns are added to the stem and the first white layer is put on the leaves.

Now I am starting to fill in the eye area:

I have purposely left the one petal blank so you can see how it all started. It is so much fun seeing the pansy come to life.

Here it is with some more colours added:

Now all 5 petals have colour on them: It is amazing how bright the white is here especially considering that it started on black paper. The contrast is what makes it appear so bright. I have this pansy blooming in my garden again this spring as it wintered over in my garden shed. The blossoms even look exactly like this again.

Here it is finished! A larger image is in my Portfolio. It is called, 'Pansy Face'.