|
This is a photograph of fishing boats at low water in Shoreham, West Sussex. Clearly there is far too much detail and some major editing has to take place, to simplify the image. Many people have difficulty with this process, but it is just simply deciding what is important to make an interesting and pleasant drawing. It usually involves removing a large amount of the excess detail and also creating a composition that works.
|
|
|
Here is the result of the initial editing and you can see that an enormous amount of detail has been removed, but we have been left with a pleasant composition. I decided to work with water soluble graphite pencils on 150gsm cartridge paper and to leave the sky as white paper.
|
 |
| A close up view shows just how much detail can be removed andhow the pencil marks are used to create texture. Much of the paper remains untouched, which is a useful contrast to the very dark values (often referred to as counterchange). |
|
| This is the final drawing and much of the shading has been softened and blended by the use of a water colour brush and clean water. A lot of attention has been given to tonal values. For example the mid grey stern of the large trawler has been set against a very dark value, to make it stand out. Whereas if you look back at the original photo, you will see that the tones are similar and consequently it is difficult to appreciate the actual shape of the trawler's stern. The boats in the right foreground have been totally removed, as they act as a distraction to the main image. |
 |