Every drawing I create is planned out carefully—there is a vision in mind as to the make-up of the drawing, the pattern, the colors, the number of lines drawing.
Choosing a pattern.
My first choice for a single figure drawing is the pattern — which style of figure is drawn. What combination of gear wheels will I use. “Cloud Nine” a recently completed drawing will be my example. I knew for this drawing I wanted the star shape to have nine points as I already had the title in mind for this drawing. Finding the figure to draw was simplified by the idea for the drawing, that concept of cloud nine.
Color line up and planning.
I was imagining a drawing with a melange of colors, like floating on a cloud at sunrise. Pretending to be in an otherworldly atmosphere of pinks, violets, and multi-colored goodness. A combination of many colors was needed to get that dreamy feel, all spectral and happy. The major color movement I wanted was the “rose colored glasses” effect. Predetermining the pacing of pinks, reds, maroons and violets was key here, and a pinkish center was a must for me. But I also wanted to get almost every color of the spectrum in this drawing to have it sparkle with undertones of blue, green, yellow and orange.
Pens all lined up in a row.
Before beginning to draw all the pens are lined up in the predetermined order making it easy to switch pens after each line plots is inked down. The photo here shows the partial line up of ink pens used for the Cloud Nine drawing.
MARY WAGNER ART BLOG 