Today’s the day when I wrap up my solvent experiment so let's get to it, shall we?
To catch folks up on what the heck I’m talking about (in case you’re just reading this blog for the first time) a few weeks ago I decided to take on a small project involving using solvents with my coloured pencil work. The beginning of it can be found here.
There, now that you’re up to speed I’ll continue. You can find the follow up post to that one here.
Here is the final piece. Please, feel free to comment and crit as much as you’d like. Good or bad, no worries, I have thick skin for this kinda thing.
Untitled solvent horse. Open to suggestions...anyone?5x7, coloured pencil and solvent on pastelbord
Copyright Rita Woodburne
Looking at it now I can see lots of things I would've done differently and, because of my energy sapping cold, I really could've come up with something much more interesting for the background. However, considering this was an experiment I'm okay with it.
So how do I feel about the Zest-It solvent? I’m underwhelmed. It cost me a fair bit to get this stuff and while I do enjoy a citrus scent, I could just as easily cut an orange in half and place it next to me while I’m working...and then eat it when I’m done. I can’t eat or drink Zest-It... well, I could, but I’d get sick and... nevermind, you get the idea.
Also, having worked a bit with my watercolour pencils last year in conjunction with some of my cp pieces, I can’t really say that the solvent gave me any effects that were more desirable than what I can get with the watercolour pencils.
Okay, so was there anything that I did like about it? Not specifically about the product but what I did enjoy was the fun I had smooshing colour around with a paintbrush on the pastelbord (and Meg, if you’re reading this, your softer bristle brushes will meet a similar fate as your other brush, I’m sorry to say) and a good old colour smooshing was just the thing I needed. This little experiment also revived my interest in pastelbord. I still have a few pieces lying around and I’m already conjuring up ideas for projects to use it with!
3 comments:
I think this looks great! I like the pastel-like feel you achieved with the highlights. Do you think you'll use the solvent again?
Rats.
I think your experiment turned out great! I love the smooth colors you got. Also, the colors in the horse (especially the fiddly bits) look awesome.
Ann- Thanks! I think I'll try a few more pieces with the solvent, I hate to judge something based on a single use. If I'm still not taken with it I'll probably just use it up until it's done and go back to my watercolor pencils.
Meg- Thanks for the fiddly bit compliments! :p
It's too bad that the pastelbord eats brushes and pencils because it's really neat stuff, that and I love the fact I don't need glass for the framing! I guess that's the trade off though...
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