Title: Rebirthing
Medium: RoseArt Colored Pencils/ Bristol Soft White 11" x 14"
As I was going through a lot of my old drawings from years ago, I came across a fairy picture I drew. It was a large one using both markers and colored pencils. After going over it I was instantly inspired to do a new fairy picture. It had to be completely new and show how much I have changed as a designer and artist. To me it not only had to work, but show some sort of action with lots of colors.
So where do I go to get some ideas? Not the drawing board, but the sketchbook. When I have an Idea one of two things happen. A whole lot of very messy broken sketches, or a drawing that just stands on it's own. This time I just nailed the look I was going for. I wanted a fun pixie type fairy that lived in the forest, or garden. She had to look like she lived outside, and used materials that she found to dress herself. So for her clothing I used grass, small twigs, string, flower petals, and leaves. I didn't color this one because I wanted to get to the scene I wanted to portray, and I didn't want to draw another fairy just sitting down either. With my basic design and idea ready it was time to start drawing my new piece.
My new fairy was gaining a life of her own. As I drew her out a lot of things changed, which usually happens when I start new drawings. In fact in this drawing the entire concept changed about three times. I made her more of a motherly yet youthful looking fairy, and taller. Having done this I wanted to show why so I have her flying in mid air raising her hand up in a strong tall pose. This is my favorite part of drawing. It's letting go and drawing a new character design from nothing. You create personalities and life on the paper. I will say one thing though I do go through a whole lot of erasing.
I already knew that I wanted to do more of an earthy tone to this piece. To do this I used a whole lot of brown, and dark browns instead of black for shadows. At the same time I still wanted to have her very colorful and vibrant. I used about three greens just for the small leaves alone, on top of the burnt sienna, and brown. Using colors over colors gives you the bright colors that you would never see using just one color, at the same time it makes it harder to correct so I try to not overwork it. At this point I am not adding too much in the area of shadows so erasing is more for highlights in the face and hair texture.
Not the best picture it was very late at night and I had to use the florescence. I was really motivated to draw a lot today. Every nap the kids took, and each moment of silence I got I was drawing, and coloring. The vines, and the leaves were the best part. I like treating each portion of the drawing as it's own individual drawing. I kind of zoom in on the drawing and add a flat color with out adding too many shadows in case the light source changes. I do however add just enough darkness when an object overlays another. Giving everything on this drawing will have a form of brown in the color, I decided to give it way more color by adding different color flower petals on her garden made wardrobe.
It wasn't until today that I understood what I was going for. I saw her pose and I said to myself I want to show a motherly fairy gift that made her unique. What more motherly than caring for something that is not well or dying. This actually gave me an idea for an entire series. I plan on having each fairy help out around the house. In this case reviving the dying flowers left neglected on the tabletop. I colored the flowers that were dying very dark, and dried up, but the sunflower bright and open. I picked a sunflower because it was a good opposite to the color of the petals used on her skirt. That way it draws your eye into the line of action along with her hand. Tricky right.
Well having a new smart phone comes with advantages and can make you feel like a dummy. Apparently there is a setting for Florescent lights to take pictures indoors. At least now you can see all the colors in the image. It was finally time to add the wings and get going on the background. Now have you ever worked on a piece for several days, and then make a really dumb mistake towards the end. Well yeah that happened. As I was working on the wings, I grabbed a graphite 6B soft pencil instead of the black for the details on the wings. After I finished the first wing I couldn't understand why it was smudging and mixing with the other colors. Well needless to say it made the wings very dark and over shadowed the entire picture and did not match at all. So what do I do at this point give up? Heck no! I make it work to my advantage. Rather than jump into the background, after the wings were finished, I Used the same graphite pencil for the shading on the rest of the drawing. It took some time away from finishing the drawing, but using it gave the entire drawing it's own style. Not only that it gave me an idea for the background.
Originally for the background I had the idea of light coming into a window as rays across the paper, but then I figured it would make the viewer dizzy going left to right then down to up. Nah. Instead I wanted the light source to come from the flower itself. Almost like the Sunflower is thanking her for re-hydrating it with fairy magic. I needed more violet so that was my background color along with black and blue. Then I used that graphite pencil to give each ray of magic a shadow effect blending it through the yellow which was the accidently inspired part. I'll be honest if I hadn't used that pencil the drawing would have been lighter, and the background probably not so magical. In the end I was very happy with the results. And It is ready for sale on my website.
It was a journey with this piece. It was fun to create a new character, and have a little mistake turn into a big payout. Goes to show you don't toss it out, just adjust it. There is erasers for a reason. Especially in work. Thank you for stopping by.
I am available for commissions this holiday season. If you have an idea for a gift feel free to contact me today on my website. If you can dream it, I can draw it.
Derrick Rathgeber - Derrick the Artist
