When we lived waaaay out west on the coast of Perth, our local beach was Beaumaris. It was a tiny little pocket of sand nestled in between jutting limestone cliffs. Every day I walked past this beach, sometimes in the morning when all was calm, or in the evening when the stiff breeze turned your cheeks bright pink with their bite. When I had to do a Tonal Analysis drawing recently, this photo provided the perfect subject.
First step was to convert the image to black and white, which really helps defines the tones (darks from the lights).
I also prepared the surface of the paper with a thick layer of gesso. This provides texture, and really gives the paper some “tooth”. Once dry, the paper feels like a canvas.
With the photos handy as reference, I lightly sketched in the basic shapes with a thick graphite stick. It’s like a lead pencil without the wood casing. Great for shading large areas. The “Rule of Thirds” was also in my mind whilst drawing (don’t have your horizon line exactly in the middle of the paper).
Once I was happy with the basic outlines, I could start laying down the tones. Some people like to start with the light tones, but I prefer the darks, as you know what the darkest dark will be, and can work backwards from there. A 2B pencil is a good choice for getting the edges sharp.
With the side of the graphite stick I could lay down the large area of the sea with a few broad strokes. The lovely texture from the gesso was showing through the lighter tones. To prevent unnecessary smudging, I put a tissue under my right hand which keeps it clear of the paper surface.
Short sharp strokes will lay down dark lines. The graphite on gesso really shows up black. The same strokes on plain paper will just leave silvery lines that gouge out the paper. I love gesso!
The finished piece. Note you can edit out anything you don’t want - you don’t have to slavishly follow the photo. I got rid of the man, the rubbish bin and the sign.
Did I mention I love gesso? I also use it as a base for my watercolour paintings of birds.
But we’re not talking about birds today - the finger is decidely unusable still, after yesterday’s encounter. On a happier note, it’s my dad’s 90th birthday today, and I sent him about 200 photos of our new home and it’s local wildlife. We spent over an our today talking about the birds, the wallabies, the goanna and backyayd python. Not hard to see where I got my love of wildlife from.
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a belated happy new year to you, my friend! e.