Week 6 of the Autumn Plein Air Drawing with Colored Pencil Challenge was a challenge.
I worked on an oil portrait almost every day for an hour or two because I want to finish this month (it’s almost there!).
The two final lessons in the Basic Drawing series also needed to be finished and one required a graphite drawing.
Autumn set in for real with a wild thunderstorm and dropping temperatures Thursday evening and although it was sunny on Friday, it was chilly. Not exactly conducive to sitting outside and drawing! I gave serious thought to sharing the graphite drawing with you and taking a pass on the plein air challenge.
Instead, I found a place in the sun and out of the wind and proceeded to draw. Here’s the result. Do you know what it is?
I didn’t set out to draw a section of extension cord, but it was the most colorful and interesting subject I could find in that spot.
It’s also the first man-made subject I’ve drawn, so its color and nature were an appealing combination.
The Method I Used
No special methods were used to draw the extension cord itself. I simply started with the lightest value of yellow on the list below and continued to build color and value through the darker yellow-oranges, the shadows on the cord, and the cast shadow.
To shade the background, I laid the paper on the paved walk and stroked sepia over the paper with medium light pressure and the side of the pencil. I wanted to transfer some of the texture of the walk onto the drawing, but had only moderate success. The paper was just too heavy.
Time Spent Drawing
I didn’t time this drawing, but would guess I spent about an hour outside.
What I Learned
Orange is a difficult color to get right. Almost as difficult is landscape greens. My subject was a faded, dull sort of orange that looked like it should be easy to capture. It wasn’t. I managed to draw an orange close to the color of the cord when it was new, but couldn’t get the right shade of dull and faded orange. Not even after layering olive green and sepia into the shadows or burnishing with white over a colorless blender.
Use “found” texture to add accents. I’ve been doing this a long time, but don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it on this blog. Found texture is any texture you can transfer into a drawing. Stone. Concrete. Wood grain.
I’ve written about different ways to use found texture on EmptyEasel. Read How to Draw Realistic Rough Stones and Cement Objects in Colored Pencil for a step-by-step demonstration. That’s what I tried to do here, but again, with only moderate success.
Tools Used
Mead Academie Sketch Book, 9 inches by 6 inches, Heavyweight white paper
Faber-Castell Art Grip Aquarelle
- Dark Chrome Yellow
- Burnt Ochre
Prismacolor Pencils
- Orange
- Pale Vermillion
- Pumpkin Orange
- Raspberry
- Olive Green
- Cold Grey Medium
- Sepia
- Cream
- White
- Colorless Blender
