Umberly Marvellous

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I please introduce...Gloria ! As many of you will be aware this is actually Johannes Vermeer's girl with a pearl earring without her top layers! Following on from the last blog post I made a small pencil drawing ( step 1 ) transferred this to my cartridge paper

(step 2 ) and embarked on the Umber under layer. I am using Prismacolour pencils because these will allow me to create the number of layers that I need. They are also rich enough to produce a deep and creamy finish . I have pushed more than I normally would have with a basic drawing because a good 60% of the work of the classical masters was completed tonally.

All of the basic tone decisions were made before colour ever touched the picture.

So why am I mad enough to feel that I can re-create an oil picture in pencil ...?

Surely I'm going to come unstuck in the later layers ...?

Well, in truth that is possible BUT there are several reasons why coloured pencils are ideal for layered work. The first being that they are translucent. Like a good watercolour wash or

an oil glaze you can see previous layers reflected through the top layer.

Secondly, many coloured pencils are capable of producing up to twenty layers on certain papers and that certainly rivals the Masters.

Thirdly, no drying time. I can concertina the time taken to complete a picture and you will have to judge for yourselves whether it was worth it.