BIJOU
Bijou is my Russian Blue companion, and is always ready to have her
photo taken, or a sketch drawn. I decided to experiment with this drawing.
Step 1 - top left. I sketched her from a photo, then attempted to create
some texture in parts of the drawing by placing a piece of scrap metal screen
under the 130# paper and rubbing over it with Stockmar white beeswax. Next, I thinned
down some acrylic and did a green wash over the whole image.
Step 2 - top right. Using charcoal, I created, more or less, a value map of the cat,
then painted over everything with Golden acrylic ground for pastels as some grit
was needed to hold the pastel.
Step 3 - bottom left. Adding pastel. Hmmm. Not as happy with this as the texture
I had created in Step 1 pretty much disappeared. Maybe added pastel with too
heavy a hand? What next?
Step 4 - bottom right. I added green to her eyes - which, indeed, are a lovely green.
I think I'm done with this particular experiment, and am, somewhat, happy with
the result. I like the fact that I played with color, though my intent was to be much looser and free-er with the entire piece - always a struggle. I'll try another with lighter-weight paper, lighter hand with pastels, and see what transpires.
