Finished Drawing

Well this is it - the first full-scale drawing I've finished in a long, long time.  It's difficult to get a sense of what it looks like here - as the original size is 91x61cms, but I will be producing prints from it of about half that size, partly because I feel it benefits from being a little 'tighter' and partly for purely commercial reasons, in that smaller prints tend to sell better.  Once the original was framed it would be very large, and it's more difficult for most people to find space in their home for something that size. You can see the original view which I produced the first sketches from here.  I have to say that this photograph is not entirely accurate, especially as it seems to have lost a little of its colour, but even so you can see that my version is much darker and more moody, bearing little resemblance to the original really. There's artistic licence for you - I always seem to produce drawings that way. Strangely it reminds me of something else in terms of it's 'feel' - possibly early 19th century german romantic art, maybe Samuel Palmer, or even an early Renaissance landscape. I'm not sure which.  However not of that was intentional - though I did specialise in studying landscape art of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, so maybe there's some subconscious influence there.

I worked the drawing up in charcoal, pastel, conte and wax crayons first, before photographing, uploading and digitally colouring it (not that you can really see the colour in these images).  I love the flexibility that this gives me to experiment to my heart's content, without fear of destroying what I've done so far. You could say it's my digital 'safety net', but in fact it's more than just that, and I'm keen to explore the interaction between digital and traditional art forms further, rather than simply using it as a tool to produce the 'perfect' image.

I needed to get this one finished, because I'm supposed to be taking part in an exhibition for our local Arts Festival at the end of September, and time is running out. I will be producing it as a limited edition print, so now I've got to try and make sure I print it out accurately.  Sometimes I find  this is the hardest part of the whole process!