The Iris: The finish line - adding final details in pencil

Hi all my very patient friends

It seems, once more, I have been too long in popping up this final post.  I admit, the failure of my blogs to actually display was starting to defeat me, but not for long!! So lets finish this painting!!

So let's recap where we have been:

1. We sketched in the chosen image of the Iris;
2. We blocked in with our watercolours;
3. We incorporated white acrylic with our water colours to help highlight, deepen or bring movement to our flower;
4. We worked on our background to push it away and help our flower pop!

So here we are, about to finish our painting by introducing pencils for the final fine details.

If you wish, you can use watercolour pencils, your childrens pencils, some of your own luscious pencils if you have some, or you could buy some luscious pencils like Prismacolour (which is what I used).

Overview

For this final stage I used a violet, purple, dark blue, pale blue and pale yellow pencil. 

Note:   My pale yellow is so pale, it is almost white.  We don't want to bring in a stark yellow because with purple - being on the opposite side of the colour wheel - it will just pop off the page and be in total conflict with everything achieved so far. 

Then, in a very relaxed fashion (don't freak out!), we start doodling on our paintings.

I know, I know,...like I said, don't freak out!!  When I say doodling, I mean we randomly select the parts that we think can do with a little lift.   We don't overthink it.  We don't over apply it. 

We go with our initial feel...you know when you walked into the room with fresh eyes, having not looked at your painting for a wee while (I know, my fault! Sorry!); it is those little final details that bring it all together and could be as simple as;   

• a little pale yellow to the white to tone it down;
• a little light shading beside the dark stem to assist with a "glow" appearance;
• a little sharpening of the edges where darks and lights meet;
• a little movement into your flower or some definition to enhance a shape.

So for your painting, did anything strike you intitially as needing a little more oompf?  Where would you like to add some definition?  Is there a little highlighting you would like to add? A little movement? Anything?

If you are 100% happy

with your painting and you don't want to add pencil,
don't!

Just use that pencil to sign your name. 

Congratulations!

If you are keen to include pencil...read on....

Pencil on the flower

I used my pale yellow and blue, violet and purple on my flower.

Lets start off with the petals. 

Is there anything you would like to add here to assist with the movement?  You may either wan to add a little extra shading, or it could be just sketching in some lines.  I have included an example of my flower petal down under the background section, where I added some fine lines for definition. 

If you wish to add some shading, start off with a gentle hand and only just shade over the area that you would like to add a little bit of lift.  Relax...just add a bit.  Remember, we aren't trying to cover up what we have done before, we are just "lifting".  And guess what...if you don't like it...rub it out!

What about your flower stems?

Below you can see my before and after pencil for my stems.

You can see where I have added my purple on the flower, beside the stem (on the left side).  Being purple, against a yellow green, this pushes my background back.  However, there is also some light included between this purple and the green - enough to give the "glow" I wanted.

I also added yellow to my white highlight on my bud.

I used the pale yellow on some areas that were too bright, to tone it down - for example as below on the  underneath of the petal on the left hand side.

The orange brown was too much, but the yellow helps to lighten the colours I wanted and maintain the integrity of the colour.  I have also added pencil for the petal coming forward, on the underneath to define the movement.  (Note, the white highlight on the "after" for that petal was added during my acrylic stage).

I also added some extra movement and dimension into my flowers with the purple, violet and pale blue. In some parts, it is almost like drawing the flower back in.  I just doodled away as I felt necessary.

Pencil on the background

Now, my dark blue pencil is for my background - remember, no black and at this stage, no grey - we want to keep the life going and put some lift back in with some lovely deep blue. 

• Colour in some of the shaded area next to the flower to give it some depth.   
• Doodle in some of the grass stems in the back to "hint" at the details - remember, we are keeping the background as "minimal" in details as possible).
• Don't shade around the whole flower with your blue, because that would not appear natural, but certainly those parts that are darker can get a wave of the pencil.

 

So here in my before and after you can see where I have added the blue to the background, as well as the purple to my flower (as mentioned above.)  Can you see where I have also doodled on some scribbles.  Yeh, go for your life I say! It is the background after all ;-)

 And here is my background bud.  I have included more blue to really highlight that it is resting in the sun, while the background is in shadow.  I also added a "shadow" between my flower petal and the bud.  This is a bit like adding my "highlight" to the stem - where I included the reflected light between the purple and the green from above - this shadow adds the depth between the flower and the bud.

Make sense?

Anyway, that pretty much sums it up.

Don't forget that this is ideally a final touch stage - this isn't recreating your image or your painting.  Just touches of details.

Next, I will open up a gallery viewing so we can link up our "before" and "after" images from your Paint With Me experience!! I hope you can make it along!

Hugs

Cath