The Creative Plan – Day 5 Liquid Pencils

Project_2_Liquid_pencils_Day5

day4_exercise6

Macquarie Place Park

It was a morning out in the city with Urban Sketchers Sydney then I continued on into the afternoon with a few sketching friends. I wanted to use the liquid pencils at least once today so pulled out the Permanent paints and a short-haired brush.

macquarie_placeThe colours and the soft grainy tints I created are really nice, though this might be partly attributed to the dry, short-brush technique. The background washes were created with the same paints too which is quite nice.

macquarie_place_sketch_LR
Liquid Pencil with dry, short-hair brush

 Again, it was hard to create fine detail or tonal variation with this paint, even when I tried to build up the tone in layers it still ended up being a solid block of dense colour. It would be great as an Impressionistic medium if it involved wanting to catch light play…maybe…

Henson Park

One thing I have liked throughout this exploration is the soft grainy texture that’s left behind when the paint is removed. I prepared two sheets in advance, loading it with rewettable paint: one had Grey and Red; the other two layers of Sepia. The next day I removed as much as I could, first with water then with an eraser.

red_grey_shape
Preparing a base – Grey 9 and Red layers
sepia_shape_with_rubber
Second base made up of layers of Sepia Liquid Pencil

In the last few hours of daylight I went to my local park, a football field, and drew the grandstand with some Conte á Paris pencils, courtesy of my talented sketching friend Lisa.

henson_image_1

Liquid Pencils will continue to befuddle me. Thinking that it’s a graphite surface which should work well with other carbon or graphite materials, I chose a Conté carbon pencil that I love because of how soft and easy it is to move around the page, it can be subtle or strong depending on your pressure.

henson_red_grey_pencil

However, it was so hard to use. It felt scratchy and coarse, as though the paper had no tooth. The surface even felt slippery in some areas. I then went over it with a white Conté but barely got it to adhere.

close_up_applying_white_2You can see in of the close-up below all it did was leave scratches behind.close_up_applying_white_1Not feeling particularly buoyed by this, I wasn’t anticipating much with the sepia version. 

henson_image_2To my surprise it worked beautifully! The Contes’ took to the surface far more readily and naturally. I quite liked the feel and although my drawing was rushed, and not to my personal liking, it was enjoyable to use and I got decent results. 

 

henson_sepia_white_layer
Beginnings of the sepia drawing with a white Conté.
henson_sepia_finished
Final sketch completed with a Sepia pencil, then Sanguine.

After this last exercise my mind is now whirring with the possibility that the colour paints may have more flexibility in regards to layering and mixed media options than the graphite ones?

I need a lie down.

Next post
The Creative Plan – Review Liquid Pencil

Previous post
The Creative Plan – Day 4 Liquid Pencil

One thought on “The Creative Plan – Day 5 Liquid Pencils

  1. I am loving the thoroughness of the Creative Plan, I feel like there’s no stone you’re leaving unturned as you investigate ways to use these pencils. It’s really inspiring xx

Comments are closed.

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: