Art: Pink Pansy

[sigune]

Last Saturday I was in my favourite shop for artists' materials to buy a new diary, when I came across a set of watercolour pencils. That is, I came across lots of sets of watercolour pencils, but one was much cheaper than all the rest and I couldn't resist buying it, even though I felt slightly ashamed :D.

You may (or may not) remember that a while ago I posted a small sketch of a snooty-looking Pansy Parkinson that I declared I would turn into a finished picture sooner or later. Now, the dress she is wearing had to look light and slightly transparent; I had pink and frilly on my mind. There was no way I could achieve the desired effect with inks or even pencil - it's possible that real artists who know their media can, but unfortunately I'm not one of those. My idea was to use watercolour, and I bought a nice, good quality watercolour set a while ago, but I haven't dared to use it before taking some kind of classes. The pencils, however, are cheap enough for me to muck about with them without feeling like I am wasting good materials on amateurish enterprises ;P. So I decided to give Pansy a try with watercolour pencils - I have to confess that one of the set's irresistible charms is its pinks.

Basically I bought the set for this one picture that I have had in mind for so long -_-.

Well, that's the start, at least :-).

So here it is. People who know something about watercolour pencils will no doubt find a lot to criticise, but personally I think it could have turned out worse... I'm struggling with understanding colour, but it's a fun struggle.

Comments

[vanityfair00.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm no expert, but I think this was a successful experiment. She looks so snooty!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Doesn't she? I adore drawing snooty people XD.

Thank you!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Her skin is so pretty and her skirt looks floaty and diaphonous.

So what's wrong with this use of watercolor pencils? They do look like you watercolored the pic. Well, I will wait for the grumpy experts to hit the scene, and just quietly squee my head off over here until they do.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LOL! I had no guidelines for the use of watercolour pencils, and when I use a medium instinctively I always feel sure that I'm missing out on a lot of its potential. I went to a Khnopff exhibition some time ago, and when I saw what that artist could do with simple graphite pencils, I found myself wondering whether it could be true that I used the same medium :/. Hence my suspicions about my own inadequacy... I also think there is too much contrast between the colour of Pansy's face and that of her shoulder. It's a result of my inexperience with mixing flesh tones.

But on the whole I'm pretty pleased with it :D.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

1. Great icon--so germane!

2. I wonder whether you could find the time (!!!!) to take an art class. Not because i think you "need" it or anything--what do i know, i find only pure aesthetic pleasure in your drawing! But maybe you would get a lot out of such instruction now, when you are making so many nifty drawings. (As i think i might get more out of a writing seminar now, while i'm actually doing all this fiction writing.)

3. I had never heard of Khnopff, but i think i had seen one of the paintings i found online--the sphinx? Amazing stuff! i wish i could see the pencil drawings you allude to here. Thanks for the reference! Hmm, I wonder what art books i can get on him from the library...

4. inadequacy is definitely not the right word.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

*g*

Ah, Khnopff... I wish I could refer you to the pencil picture, but I don't know where to find it. I saw it on a special exhibition in Brussels. The whole display was amazing, but would you believe I didn't buy the catalogue because that particular drawing was printed so small, and the photos didn't do justice to the delicacy of the paintings? *is miffed* You should be able to find a thing or two about him though; several of Khnopff's works are owned by American museums - I think Jeanne Kefer is at the Getty, for example. He was a great name around 1900; I have no clear idea of his international reputation nowadays.

I would like to take watercolour classes; I'm on the lookout. The longer I stumble around on my own, the more I realise that some things just demand a kind of knowledge and aptitude that I cannot (or only with much difficulty) acquire on my own, and that sometimes it is useful to really know what I'm doing. So, um, yes, classes would be good. What I do in class won't be good, because I tend to copy too much initially, but once I get out again and start to muck about by myself I should be able to apply what I've learned :).

[lunafish.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. I especially like her pose in those pink stockings and the way the dress seems to swoosh out behind her.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I absolutely wanted the swoosh - I'm not entirely sure it's physically possible, but I don't care XD. The stockings were a stroke of luck - they came out looking all shiny even though I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing. But shush, don't tell anyone!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is lovely! Her feet are perfect, I love the little bit of ankle bone sticking out, and she looks so arrogant. Terrific!!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I didn't have to struggle with the pose a lot at this stage, but I remember it did cause me trouble in my first sketches. I'm so glad you like it! I love ankles :-).

[veradee.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what watercolour pencils are, but the result convinces me. It's a beautiful picture, and I particularly like the skirt, which is so delicate.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That delicacy is what I wanted, and I didn't think I could achieve it in any other way than with watercolour transparency. As I see it, watercolour pencils are just a tad less frightening than 'real' watercolour because you can use them like ordinary coloured pencils and then go over them with water and a brush to make the colours mix and look smooth and paint-like. I suppose the fact that they are pencils gives me more control than I would have had with a brush - I don't know much about painting and feel insecure with brushes. The scary thing was that I mixed the colours on the page instead of doing it beforehand like I used to with ecoline.

[seaislewitch.livejournal.com]

PANSY!

I love, love, love it!

She's just so Pansy!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yay! :D

Thank you ♥ .

[purpleygirl.livejournal.com]

So prissy! I love her arrogant stance and the way you drew her legs, particularly her left ankle. She is so Draco's girl! *g*

I also like the long glove. You do creases so well! *g*

I really like the watercolour dress. I'm no expert, but did you do her hair in watercolour as well? Only I wonder (and feel free to ignore the non-expert) that if that was in watercolour as well it would kind of go with her dress. If you see what I mean? She looks to have a sort of ethereal quality.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Her hair is in watercolour too :D. I kept the pencil strokes on purpose because I wanted her hair to have a different texture than her dress; I think that otherwise it might have come out looking more like a kind of hat than like hair ;P.

I obviously specialise in picturing arrogant people XD...

[purpleygirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, well. Just shows how little I know. I humbly defer to your superior judgement! :)

I don't know whether I should admit to this here, but your description of watercolour pencils to replicate watercolour painting without the brushing made me pick up a basic, cheap set today. What can I say, I was in an insanely optimistic mood, never having picked up a pencil/pastel for around 10 years. I used to love getting my fingers into the pastel. Now I just need to find my old charcoal pencil and remind myself how bad I can really be at this. *g*

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's so great - you must continue! It's such fun to potter around with art materials, though I admit it can be frustrating when things don't work out - I know what I'm talking about ;).

Pencils rule!

*goes off squeeing*

[unlikely2.livejournal.com]

Superb, with just a slight suggestion of Umbridge in the Alice band.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yes, as I was doing the picture I kept thinking that the film, especially, settles pink as Umbridge's property too... How horrid for Pansy! :-)

Thanks!

[sscrewdriver.livejournal.com]

Aha! Watercolour pencils! It works really well. I find if I lightly shade over the area while dry, then take a clean, wet brush to it... which looks like exactly what you've done. After it's dry you can build up another layer. Nice glow to her skin.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Um - does it bother you, when you look at the picture, that her face is paler than the rest of her skin? I applied my dark yellow much more liberally to her shoulder than to her face, and I was scared to ruin it all by trying to make the face a bit darker afterwards :/.

I also kept wondering whether it was bast to mix the colours on a piece of paper before applying them, or to colour the picture with the pencils and then apply water - which is what I did. I have to say it was kind of exciting to see the colours blend ... but I did need help from a book in order to mix proper flesh tones. I would never have guessed by myself what constituted those :(.

[sscrewdriver.livejournal.com]

does it bother you, when you look at the picture, that her face is paler than the rest of her skin?
No! I was admiring that, actually. The colour of the skin on the face is usually a different colour than the rest of the body - have a look at yourself when you're about to wash! It's often paler or redder, depending on the person, how hot they are, the emotion you want to convey, shadows etc. Also, you can do skin in an amazing variety of colours and it can still look 'right' to the eye - a mixture of blues, purples, yellows, reds... everything, really. Experiment!

colour the picture with the pencils and then apply water That's the logical way, I think. I haven't tried anything else. But, as I said; you can layer, working into wet or dry paper.

Now you make me want to enter the colour pencil challenge myself. I am such a headless sheep where you are concerned.

[lewlinx.livejournal.com]

She is lovely in pink!

Very Pansy indeed :D:D

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thanks ;-)!

[cafemercury.livejournal.com]

I saw this on hp_art_daily, I believe, and of course I had to come look at it because our mutual friend seaislewitch is such a Pansy aficionado. I love what you've done with the colors here. Pink is a color that's so easily made too bright, I think, but your touch with it was just right. The lines of the dress are lovely, and Pansy's haughty expression, perfect.

Excellent job!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Whenever I draw Pansy, my greatest worry is that seaislewitch will say she's rubbish XD... I'm happy the picture got her approval! She's the expert after all :-).

Glad you like the pink! I had developed a mild obsession with it...

(PS: those are my slippers in your icon! Only mine are the fuchsia version :D.)

[cafemercury.livejournal.com]

You know, it's funny...I used to hate pink--was known for it among my RL friends--and now I love it. Go figure!

And I love your fuchsia slippers! *visualizes* I adored that icon and hunted down the maker so I could credit. I have some brown ones that are similar, but nowhere near as adorable as those.

[misconstrue.livejournal.com]

I love it! The pose makes me think of Degas, but so much more rich and pampered "I'm better than you'll ever be."

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hee! How funny that you should mention Degas when I didn't think of him myself - but yes, I went to an exhibition in the Tate Gallery last year where they displayed both Whistler's (rich and pampered) Miss Cicely Alexander (which inspired this Pansy) and Degas' statuette of the Little Dancer, which made a great impression on me :D. I went to that exhibition disliking Degas and left admiring his art. If you scroll down here (http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/degas/images/artworks/littledancer.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/degas/room1.htm&h=299&w=250&sz=11&hl=nl&start=5&tbnid=XO60xx_Gl0djqM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDegas%2Blittle%2Bdancer%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dnl%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:nl:official%26sa%3DN) you can find both the Whistler painting and the Degas statuette, together like little sisters *g*. Their poses are very similar.