Saturday, June 7, 2014

Leaves and more leaves

I did say that I would show you some of the pages in my Leaf sketchbook.  I certainly can't show them all as the book is pretty large and nearly full, but most pages will be added to so far from finished.
Here are a few pages in progress, relevant to yesterday's post.
The page on the right above is from a while ago, and the one on the left is a new one.  It is in glossy paper as you can see by the reflection (sorry).  It is a technique that I learnt from Laura Kemshall, but I have modified it.  I first put down a lot of grey lead pencil, covering the page, then I burnish the lead (this is why it is glossy paper)  Then I use erasers and blending sticks to move and remove the graphite.  I actually used an elecric eraser for some of the really white areas.  I love the way the burnished graphite blends.
This is also an older page, with layered monoprints, but I showed it because I like the little leaf that I cut out of the left hand page and attached to the right hand page with a brad.
The page on the left is a new page, in fact one I did this morning!  I cut out some leaves from my huge stash of collage paper and collaged them down on a roughly painted page, then added some shadows and highlights with oil pastel.  The page on the right is cut out from a monoprint on the other side, so you can see through to the blank page beyond.
This page has three of the prints on scrap paper I did yesterday added.
This is another older page where I have cut away the page on the left and cut out a leaf on the right, showing the pink on the page below.
On this page, you can see I have used the stickers from the sheet I printed leaves on, and on the right,
I have actually even used the frames left over when I took the stickers off the page.
On this page, I have layered the leaf traced on tracing paper, over a painted leaf I did using the stencil ofit I made.
On this page I have layered a print on tracing paper over one of the gouache leaves.
I have done the same thing here, layering an inkjet print on tracing paper over a gouache leaf.
This last one is far from finished, but is just a collage made from some of the prints, some leaves cut out of other pages, and a photo that I have painted into the page.

I hope you enjoyed this little look at a work in process.

Happy Creating!