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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

If It's Signed, It's Finished!


Dining Out
Conte pencil on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper
16" x 16"

I've made a few subtle changes and sharpened some of the spaces between the foreground grasses. I could go on and on fiddling with the grass stalks, but I doubt that the drawing would be improved as a whole. I remind myself that the viewers' focus will be on the 'roo anyway!

Cheers
Pete

20 comments:

DennyHollandStudio said...

Fantastic drawing, Pete, I don't think I'd have the patience to define all those stalks like you did..but the effort sure makes your piece sing!

Peter Brown said...

Whaddya mean Denny? A few swipes with a sharpened eraser and they were done! Thanks for looking.

Sally McLean said...

Modesty Hey! All that grass is a display of great dedication and is a superb textured detail surrounding the roo. At the moment I think grass is the single most difficult thing I have ever attempted to paint. I would rather paint furry animals anyday!

Peter Brown said...

Sally, furry animals are on my list of things to do and I'm looking forward to attempting another roo in oil or acrylic soon. Thanks for commenting!

April Jarocka said...

Oil eh? Good on ya! Go for it Pete.
The eraser...ah a lifesaver! Beautiful roo. Keep em coming!

Erik van Elven said...

Beautiful finish Peter. Keep swiping that eraser :)

Peter Brown said...

April, I have you and your blog to thank if I go down the oil path. My ears pricked up when I read about your use of Liquin as a medium. I now realise that turpentine can be avoided entirely, even where cleaning brushes is concerned.

Peter Brown said...

Thanks Erik!

Grahame Butler said...

Great work Peter, Grass is just a pain to do but when finished if drawn as well as this makes the picture whole, keep building up that stock Peter.

Peter Brown said...

Thanks Grahame. My strategy with this drawing was to work on the spaces between the grass stalks rather than the grass stalks themselves. This was due in large part to the paper colour which I chose to match the general colour of the grass. Whether this approach is successful in all settings and with other mediums remains to be seen!

Colette Theriault said...

Nice job Peter. Love the detail in the grass...colored pencil and grass are not my friend. You make it look so easy. Beautiful roo too btw!

Peter Brown said...

Thanks Colette!

Jeremy Pearse said...

Very nice Peter, I especially like the pose, the subtle grasses and the title! The ears are wonderfully captured too cleary showing something of the character of this rather cute animal.

Peter Brown said...

Jeremy, glad you like it - thanks for dropping in. Cuteness is something many wildlife artists consciously try to avoid, but sometimes the subject makes that goal very difficult to achieve!

Jo Potter said...

Beautiful work Peter. I have just found your blog and it is lovely.
I use to live in Brisbane, Australia, for a few years and I miss it a lot.
I love the wildlife in Oz. I have just noticed the lovely image of a red fox, on a previous post. I have just made a red fox necklace for Autumn...
I'm now following you!;)
See you again soon.
Jo.

Peter Brown said...

Jo, I'm glad you found my blog - thanks for following!

Jo Potter said...

Hi again Peter,
I was just wondering if it is ok, if I put your site on my Creative Site List?
I'm an illustrator of children's books, so I enjoy visiting other artists like you on Blogger!:)
Many thanks, Jo.

Peter Brown said...

Joanne, that would be great - thanks!

Anonymous said...

Awesome work Peter. Since you did this using Conte, how did you get the details in the grass? Did you use an electric eraser? Outstanding work.
p.s. thanks for the kind comments you left about my violin.

Peter Brown said...

Thanks for the comments Scott! I used a blending stump to establish the background to the grasses, leaving some areas untouched to suggest individual stalks. The more sharply defined grass stalks in the foreground were "drawn" in with a regular pencil eraser which I'd cut into a chisel shape.