Another Art Experiment

I’ve always had more luck with drawing than painting.  I’d like to be able to paint, I just never seem to have the patience to learn.  It’s on my “to do” list.

Anyway, I came across an interesting method for blending painting and drawing and decided to give it a go.  Basically I started with a pencil drawing, filled it in with watercolors and then finished it off with some soft-core Prismacolor pencils I got for Christmas.  I’m pretty happy with the results:

Yeah, I know.  Predictable subject matter, but I thought it’d help to start with something I know.  This is Roger Moore on the set of For Your Eyes Only (1981).  I like that there’s color, and that — at least in the face — it’s smoother than what a pencils-only image usually gives me.  But I’ve obviously got a long way to go to master this technique.  I probably relied too much on the pencils to get across the darkest details (lines in the face and hair) and near the end, I reverted to type and added an outline around the entire figure, which works fine in pencil or ink, but in a watercolor (as in life) there should be no outlines.  I think it pushes this more fully into the “pencil drawing” camp than I intended.  Also I didn’t have a blue paint that matched my blue pencils, so I went over the former with the latter pretty boldly, and now the pencil strokes are fairly glaring.

So, as ever, one step forward and one (or two) back, but there’s potential.