So I made a compromise with myself over the watercolour. I first sketch my image and then use the watercolours as a general wash to block in the areas with a base colour and this colour will form the concept for that area for the entire piece. I then add in layer upon layer of highlights/shading/midtones and that is where my confidence with watercolour fades away... but it has come a lot further than not even wanting to use the brush and seeing as this is a self taught process of literally trial and error I don't think I'm doing too badly.
After the watercolour 'washes' I then go over in coloured pencil and I use 2 types, both watercolour and artists colouring pencils. Within the colouring pencils I use both the standard spectrum and metallic pencils. I find the metallic softer and this bridges the gap between having an idea and phasing it in with layers instead of going boldly into a strong shade. I feel this is more a confidence thing as opposed to a necessity, more about getting to know what the colours can do or can't do and finding out how to blend them all together.
The whole process is, some would say obviously, different to photography but on some levels the playing field is the same. I try and see a rough idea of the finished image before I start even before I do preliminary sketches. I would have thought about the proposed drawing for some time before I have even put pencil to paper. Also after having an initial concept I will then look to see how other artists have tackled certain areas before starting as opposed to half way... why?... I just do not want to copy other artists as then really I am not learning anything other than someone elses style. I feel if I have seen it, researched it, absorbed it, when it comes to replicating the concept within my work it comes out tinged my own way.
I just then spend a lot of time going from layer upon layer of shading until the final stage where I add in, very very carefully, black. I use black for line edges and subtle shading but not as a block colour in itself... at least not yet.
Part of me loves Photography and everything it has taught me but part of me feels restricted by it... I want to go beyond the camera a little more, push myself. I am a goal setter by character [a recent trait honed by losing 6 stone] and I feel that I want to be the best I can be at drawing and run it along side my other arty ideas of which I have many... my head is always buzzing with ideas... I have so many craft books it is ridiculous!!
I also was asked an interesting question the other day and it has made me ponder quite a lot since. I was asked if I could do time over again would I study BA Hons Photography.... no probably not. Not that I am ungrateful it the experiences it brought me, the realisations it shared, the changes in life it propelled but as a whole I feel my work is not typical of someone who has studied a degree in Photography. I learnt a lot on my course and I had some amazing lecturers and I love everything they have taught me but I think if we all sat down we would agree that I'm not a photo journalist, I'm not a Wedding Photographer and I don't really fit into a lot of typical 'Photographer' categories. In hindsight and under the condition I could take what I have now with me I would most likely have studied something within a broader art range.
I feel like I am on a the cusp of a revolution. I've said in a previous blog I feel that artists go through stages... their work goes along on a nice path and suddenly POW and it notches up a gear... something has changed, maybe something subtle but their work has transcended into a whole new ballpark. I feel like I have been trundling along for a while now and that I am just now grasping at the next level and I am excited where my work might be going next.
So I thought I would share my latest concept:
[© Laura Ashford, 'Gazing']
All work contained within this post and within this blog in its entirety is subject to the respective copyrights of the owners. All work created by Laura Ashford is copyright and is not for redistribution, editing, appropriation without prior written agreement. Work may be shared with a link and an acknowledgement to Laura Ashford as the creator.
