Look inside my Sketchbook —
First, I’m going to discuss the products I use for sketching potential future artworks. I have a couple of different sketchbooks. I use a Strathmore for traditional sketching with pencils, charcoals, and colored pencils. The second is my favorite; it’s a Canson mixed media sketchbook that I use with Micron pens. It can also be used for watercolors and fluid or light-bodied acrylics. I like the texture of the paper, because it’s thicker and there’s no bleed through. Also, because I’m using my Micron pens, I don’t get the smearing and gray hand that I do when drawing with pencils or charcoals. If you’re just starting out in your art journey, I highly recommend the Micron pens for their precise lines, and you can achieve different textures with the multiple sizes available.
Red Rock Canyon drawing, completed in 2019. Clarissa Keener Art.
Sketch vs. Final
I use my sketch here as a proof of concept; to get the form oriented properly before drawing it onto my canvas. I’m not going to sit here all day coloring in my sketchbook if I really just want to paint. So I did a couple sketches of this, and this was my final sketch I ended up using for concept. I then drew the same form (as closely as possible) with a light colored pencil onto my primed canvas. Then I fill in with my “underpaint,” to achieve where the basic highlights and shadows will be. For the underpaint, I typically will use a fluid acrylic or acrylic ink, such as Liquitex Acrylic Ink.
I like to use a neutral color, in fact I normally use neutral gray 5. At this point, you can just go a little wild with the brush and ink, because you’re going to be painting over it anyway. As long as you are capturing the outline, and your highlights and shadows, you can do pretty much whatever here! Once your underpaint dries-another reason I like the acrylic ink, it dries really quickly-you are ready to start your painting! I try to get the skin tone down first. This one was really fun, because it’s clearly not realistic with her rainbow skin. Try to get your outlines as crisp as possible, use painter’s tape if you need to, and definitely use an angled brush for precision! In truth, I mostly use angled brushes in different sizes for a lot of my paintings. I recommend in investing in a decent set of brushes, and then adding in more of the ones you really enjoy and what works for you. This is a nice, affordable brand here.
Until next week, please stay well!
Originally published at https://www.clarissahenleykeener.com on October 29, 2020.
