SET YOURSELF UP FOR FAILURE

In many instances, I never know how my drawing is going to turn out. That’s because I try to incorporate new means and methods whenever I have a new idea.

We have talked about the power of WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS. That page addressed graphite type soluble pencils. For Christmas, my daughter gave me a very nice set of water soluble watercolor pencils. In some of the latest drawings in theses pages, I have used the watercolor pencils. I will give a full report on those soon.

IDEA

The following thought occurred to me before I started drawing. What if you use only water soluble pencils to apply the tones, and then what if you apply the water in one pass.

I had never done these two operations before on a drawing. Therefore it was a new idea. And the point here is that when you hear the little voice in your head say something new, listen to it and try it out.

Since I am on an Ellsworth Kelly kick, I used two of his drawings as the geometry for my form projection. If you need a primer or refresher on the transparent drawing projection concept, see DRAWING PROJECTION.

The drawing immediately above is what my paper looked like after I had applied the tones with the two different pencils. The interdependence of the two geometries was still intact. The three dimensional forms were still very clearly resolved.

RESULT

The drawing at the top of the page is what my paper looked like after the application of water, with a watercolor brush, in one pass. The risk was that the independence of the two geometries would be lost. I had no idea how the water would interact simultaneously with the color and the graphite tones. It all could have turned to an indistinguishable muddy wash.

But it didn’t. The application of the water in one layer, while slightly occluding the geometry and the forms, did not dissolve the color or the graphite entirely. I think that the dissolve rate, if we can call it that, of the color watercolor pencil and the graphite water soluble pencil was slightly different.

So, by setting myself up for failure, I got a Transparent Drawing that was unexpected. And I now have a new drawing idea to employ and / or build upon in the future.

Great fun.