Epiphany

Well, this is the finished product from an earlier post...her name is Epiphany, I finished last night...stayed up later than I should have, but I can't resist the drive to work when it's there...

The process is as follows...

The paper is 140 lb cold press Arches watercolor paper (15 x 11 overall size, image is 13 x 9 1/2"), it has a nice "tooth" to it to create texture when using dry media. I taped the sheet down to a piece of matboard with artist tape to make a clean margin and hold it in place. Then I took my raw graphite chunk and scrubbed it over the paper allowing the crumbles to make random lines as well...then using a paper towel I softened the overall image area, grading dark to light and carefully maintaining the curving lines that developed. Then lifting the black and gray with the kneaded eraser creating fluttering marks and light gray lines. I've carefully defined shapes with hard pencils, the 5 H, 4 H and 2 H, again touching off details with the eraser. Once I finished I misted it with fixative to prevent smudges.


How do I know I'm done? Well...sometimes I don't...but last night I knew...so far it's been a productive new year!