Week 8 - Water soluble graphite - General's Sketch & Wash #588 and a full set of 5 Faber Castell Graphite Aquarelle pencils, ranging from HB to 8B. I bought the General's Sketch & Wash pencils at Hobby Lobby along with other art supplies using a gift card last year. The set of Faber Castell Graphite Aquarelle pencils was purchased using a 50% off coupon at A.C. Moore. I usually try to buy with a coupon when purchasing art materials from either store, unless the items are already on sale.
I wasn't sure what to draw using the pencils, and first did a graphite wash study of a Salvador Dali painting in my pocket sketchbook. Dali is one of my favorite artists, which I would like to at some point, read further about his life and paintings. I became aware of him first in high school, when my art teacher showed me her books of his paintings. She also was influential in my interest in another artist, M.C. Escher, when she had us work on an art project inspired by his drawings. My interest in these two artists' artwork have remained over the years, and our two cats are named after them.
For the other drawings I made this week, I turned to google images and NASA's photo gallery for inspiration. I made a drawing inspired by a photo of mud bubbles, though my drawing doesn't really resemble bubbles, more like jellyfish, as Brenda commented. My other drawing was inspired by a photo from NASA of Hyperion, a moon of Saturn, though the drawing really just looks like a bunch of holes, not really a likeness of the Hyperion at all. I don't intend to make my artwork look exactly like the reference material that I use, I'm not really into realism in my art, or trying to make something look like a photograph. That's what photography is for in my opinion. I'm striving to create art that is representative of the material that is used, and that will eventually produce some sort of unique style that I can call my own. All the while, enjoying the process as I go along, and maybe discover a passion for a subject or an art material.
I have used the Faber Castell Graphite Aquarelle pencils before on a drawing I made of a raccoon skull from Alan's childhood nature collection. I have included it here, though is was drawn last January, when I first started my nature journal sketchbook. I think that, for me, water soluble graphite is best used for nature drawings, and goes well with skeletal anatomy renderings.
Next week in Create-A-Thon 2017 - Digital Painting on Ipad Pro with Apple Pencil.