Here is a glimpse of the beginnings of the third artwork in the series of hands studies that I am creating. This piece is titled A Handful of Lotus Seeds.
I am working on a richly coloured sheet of Pastelmat, and have been marking in the hands, the fabric and the lotus seeds using pastel pencils. I have chosen with this piece to create a monochrome underpainting. It is something that I have seen other artists doing with their work, so was curious to try it myself. For the underpainting I have used a white, a cream and a sepia pastel to give me a sense of where the main shadows, highlights and mid-tones lay. As with the lotus seeds in the middle, I then am laying colours on top of this. So far I have found it to be a useful approach. The time spent translating the colour image that I am referencing into monochrome on the page is really valuable. And I have a template now to which I can introduce vibrant colours, which is a really exciting stage to be at.
My thanks go to Réhahn Photography for his wonderful reference photograph.
