Samey

This post is samey as it is all this face. A delightful face if you like that kind of thing. She is a head from Ebay. I have had her for ages. I have a lot of heads. I can't seem to resist them. Anyway, I decided to draw this one and then to colour her in different ways. I have been bad financially and bought some alcohol pens. A whole set of them. I have not used them before-well not properly. I had some years ago and didn't like the way they bled through the paper. But then I succumbed to the charms of create and craft tv having repeatedly watched programmes about these pens called 'chameleon' which have the added feature of having a mixing chamber-basically some more alcohol which you touch the nib to. It takes away the colour which comes back as you use it, giving you gradations of colour without having to use more than one pen. I looked up some basic information about alcohol pens and found out that, unlike water based pens, they do not saturate the paper (well they do but the alcohol doesn't do anything to the paper). So you can colour and colour in the same spot and not destroy the paper. They spread colour beautifully and leave a smooth finish unlike any other medium I have used. All that being said, I am not very good at using them yet! I am enjoying learning though. 

 I did two drawings. I am using a propelling pencil which I love. It is a pentel one and has 2B leads. It was recommended to me and it is working out well.

 The drawing area is a bit large to make the most of the blending thing of the pens. The colour comes back too quickly-though I am getting better at judging how long to use the mixing chamber thingy.

 Watercolour next. The paper in this book is very absorbent, making watercolour quite hard too as it dries quickly. Slightly easier to control than the pens though.

 Finally photoshop. The brush I used is 'pastel rough texture'. Mainly very low percentage of opacity. Also hard to control. Perhaps I should just stick to photographing things!