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Art For Sale - Saint Michael Miniature Pen and Ink Drawings
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Our Lady of Guadalupe, stippled ink on genuine sheep skin, a (finished) Work In Progress |
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Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Inc.
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Marians Of The Immaculate Conception
Stippling A Yellow Flower-
Opuntia
A work in progress
Image size: 12 inches x 10 inches (entire drawing)
Image size: approximately 4 inches x 4 inches (flower)
(Please be patient while images load)
| Crescent Hi-Line 218 hot press illustration board |
| Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pens, stainless steel nibs |
| FW Acrylic inks |
Pens/Colors currently in use on this drawing - colors are shown on a standard index card.
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Nib size |
Color |
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1, 3 x 0 |
FW Process Yellow |
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4 x 0 |
FW Flesh Tint |
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2 x 0 |
FW Light Green |
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4 x 0 |
Rotring acrylic "Artist Color" Yellow Gold (no longer available) - alternatively, use FW Process Yellow (3 dropperfuls from the bottle) and FW Flame Red (3 drops, not dropperfulls) mixed well- I call my own mix of this color "Duck Feet Yellow"-lol - a comparison to Process Yellow is at the right
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Process yellow is on top and Rotring
Yellow Gold is on the bottom
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| 3 x 0 | FW Process Yellow mixed with White |  |
| 6 x 0 | FW Process Cyan |  |
This drawing is an example of what one might run into when stippling a yellow flower. This original pencil drawing was done in a standard # 2 pencil, which is slightly darker than my regular drawing pencils. #2 pencils are also a little more difficult to erase as cleanly, especially from hot press illustration board. It is not impossible or even physically difficult, but there is more smearing than would happen with a harder grade pencil, and with the subject being yellow, it is important to make sure the graphite of the pencil drawing does not affect the finished flower. In addition, this particular flower is a light yellow, and the shadows and modeling of the flower will have to be subtle yet effective.
You may notice slight variances in the colors of these images. I am using both a camera and a scanner to record the stages.
Stage 1
The initial drawing and the plant portions partially stippled. I'm showing this to show the overall composition of the drawing, but this page will focus on the yellow flower at the top.
Below is a photo of the drawing when I have spent 5 and a half hours on the entire drawing. I did the initial yellow of the plant first, as I find I like getting at least one layer on the whole drawing before starting to work on certain areas. The outline of the flower has been erased after a stippled outline in FW Process yellow has been applied. I did the stippling just inside the original pencil drawing - Process Yellow is semi-transparent, it does have some covering strength, but if I had stippled directly over the pencil, I would not have been able to easily keep any edges very light as the gray of the graphite would continue to show through. Although it's difficult to see in this photo, there are actually pencil smudges that were more difficult to remove completely. By this time, you might be asking why I didn't just use a lighter pencil to begin with -lol - and I should have. I had transferred several drawings to their final papers at once, and had used the closest pencil in reach, and not the best suited for each individual drawing.
In the photo below, the overall drawing is at 9 and a half hours. I have added some shadowing prior to stippling the main color of the flower. I am doing this to further outline the petals so that I retain my original plan for the flower. However, I do want to truly outline the petals in such a way that cannot be blended with further stippling.
To do the shadowing, I have chosen to use first, FW Flesh Tint ink. You might think that flesh color is an odd choice. However, it is a fairly neutral shade that will both create contrast from the process yellow, yet still be very easily blended with further stippling of other colors. Below you will see a photo of how Flesh Tint ink over Process Yellow makes a nice tan/yellow color (at the bottom of the plant), and it will be a similar color that is incorporated into the flower. You might also notice that I have not worried about the pencil on the rest of the overall drawing. This is because the plant will be shades of green for the most part, and the clarity of the color, although important, is not as vital as with a light yellow such as in the flower.
Below is the flower after another hour of stippling (10 and a half hours for the overall drawing, an hour and a half for the flower)
The sepals have not yet been stippled, as they are slightly different colors from the petals. On the lower left the petal seems to be slightly greenish- and it is. The No. 1 pen I am using for the current yellow stippling had green in it previously, and even though the pen nib has been washed twice, there is still some residual green in the nib tube itself. This only shows up when I use the pen after it sits idle for a few minutes, and usually I start the ink flow on an index card so that the true color is flowing when I work on the drawing. In this case, I do not worry about the green tint all that much, especially on one small shadowed area of the flower. This Opuntia flower does in fact lean on the greenish side of yellow, but not so much that I will add a layer of green. The Flesh Tint areas of the flower stand out quite a bit at this point, which is what they should do until I develop them into more complete shadow areas.
Below is a photograph of the flower after another 5 and a half hours of stippling (15.5 hours for the overall drawing, 7.0 for the flower). I have been concentrating on the sepals and the outer petals. I have also started to add some depth to the main petals and the center. I will scan the flower to better show detail at my next break and after the layers I work on today are more dry. Once I get the main petals shadowed, I will go back over them with a smaller nib and process yellow. The sepals are layers of Process Yellow followed by Light Green and then Flesh Tint. This gives them a pinky-green color. The center is stippled at this point with the same colors as the sepals, but I have left the green layer more visible.
Below is a scan of the flower after two more hours of stippling (9 hours total for the flower). I have started applying stippled layers with a 3 x 0 pen nib and Process Yellow to even out the other color layers I have applied. The smaller nib size not only fills in white areas missed previously, but by going over all the previous layers, a unity will be given to the flower. Scanning a drawing this way is also good for catching areas I need to correct or enhance.
Below is the flower, completed at this time except for any minor color balancing when the rest of the drawing it is part of is finished. I have added several layers - one complete layer of Process Yellow with a 3 x 0 nib, another partial layer of Process Yellow mixed with white in a 3 x 0 nib, Light Green, and even some Process Cyan in the shadows of the sepals. You can see, I think, how the time taken to add additional layers with smaller nibs adds depth to the flower when compared to the above scan with less layers. The flower took 16 hours to complete and will be a major component of the overall drawing.
Thank you for viewing this!