Using Colored Pencil on Wood

Transcription

1 Using Colored Pencil on Wood Because of the amount of request I receive about how I do my art on wood panels I thought I would put together a detailed tutorial, from start to finish, on my technique. The first step of course would be to obtain the wood. I go to a local lumber yard where I live as the wood comes in 4 x8 panels. The type of wood I use is oak plywood, and it is ¼ thick. I take my time going through each board in the stack looking for defects as well as looking for the best grain pattern. One of the great things about oak is its varied grain pattern making for all kinds of composition possibilities. The other reason for my choosing oak is the ability it has to take and hold the CP pigment. Also, if erasing is needed you can easily take it back down to the wood grain with little ghosting, and even if you do get ghosting, it is easily covered with new CP layers. Once I have settled on a board with no defects and a varied grain pattern, I have the lumber yard cut it up for me into 11 x14 panels. This will give you approximately 21 panels. Now, between the cost of the sheet of plywood and the cost of cutting it for me the final price on each panel winds up being around $4.00. What you wind up with is pictured below.

2 Now that you have your wood panel the next step would be to prep the surface. The only thing you have to do to prep the wood is sand the side you are going to work on with #80 grit sand paper. Sand it real good to get down to the raw wood and remove any surface film it may have picked up in transit. Also, this gives it a good tooth for CP pigment to grab onto. Once you have finished sanding the surface take a damp paper towel or rag and wipe down the board to remove all residue from sanding. One final note on the wood used. You probably will not find this wood at Lowe s or Home Depot, you will probably have to go to a lumber yard to get it. Next, study your grain pattern and picture in your minds eye what you can due with it. The possibilities are endless. One of my favorite things is to turn the grain into tree limbs or logs and place leopards or birds in the composition, using the grain pattern as much as possible. You can also do still life s on the panels and the grain accents it beautifully. See examples below.

3 The next step is to layout your main subject as you would do for any other CP work you would normally do paying attention to the placement of your subject on the grain pattern. With your outline in place, or your drawing, depending on how you work, you are ready to start laying color. Everyone has their own way of starting each piece, so what I describe here is just the way I do it, whatever you use is just as good, maybe better. With my animal art I always start with the eyes. For me that s where it all begins. When I do it that way, the painting takes on a life of its own, silly I know, but it works for me. From this point, I will generally work all over the piece, laying down a base color so I don t forget about shading or highlights and keeping in mind which direction my light is coming from. As I work all over the piece, I will keep a paper towel under my wrist so as not to smudge the color already on the board. As for the brand of pencils I use it is strictly Prismacolor. I have found that they will lay down color on wood better than any of the others. Picture below is a work in progress to kind of give you an idea of how I start to lay down color, and several steps after that followed by some examples of past work that I have completed over the years. Finally I would like to cover the finishing touches I use on each piece. Once I think I am done with the painting, I will cover it with paper towels or a cloth and not look at it for a few days after which I will go back and review it with a fresh eye, trying to pick up those little details you miss when working on it. I make whatever corrections are necessary, there always are, and then I may go ahead and finish it or let it sit for a few more days just to be sure it s the way I want it. My final step entails spraying fixative on the work, spraying on 2 coats with about a half hour between coats. I let this dry real good, usually a couple of hours, and then the final coats of varnish. I will either use semi-gloss or gloss, strictly depending on my mood really. I like the way gloss makes the big cats eyes glow.

4 In spraying on the varnish I like using 3 thin coats allowing at least an hour drying time between each one. With the fixative and varnish you want to spray each coat lightly, with the can about 12 to 14 inches from your painting, and KEEP THE CAN MOVING as you are spraying. This will prevent it from piling up on you on the surface of your work and running down the piece, ruining all the work you did. In closing I would just like to say that I hope this will be of some help to those that want to give wood a try as a support for Colored Pencil Paintings (yes they are paintings). If you have a question about something I did not cover, contact me via or Wet Canvas or Scribble Talk. My address is: artist91350@sbcglobal.net. Work in progress pics

5 Finished works

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9 Good Luck, and happy painting, Ron West