Tulip Experiment - WIP 1

In between working on my latest portrait commissions, I'm doing some smaller pieces. I'll be going to an art trade show in Raleigh, sponsored by Jerry's Artarama two weeks from now. I'll be taking one pastel workshop and doing lots of art shopping!!

I was contacted by a rep who works for UART who make UART sanded paper in four different grits. He asked me to stop by his booth so we could talk about how well the paper works and any problems colored pencils artists may be having with the paper. So, in an effort to get ready for this conversation, I have decided to do something small on each grit of the paper. Here is one of my tests.



This is on UART 500 grit paper with watercolor pencils for the background and Prismacolor colored pencils for the flower. Now, it's not nearly finished. I need to go over the background again, and I'm trying to decide if I should do it with CPs, WCPs, or pastels. Obviously the flower is not done yet either.

So far, I really like this grit. It has enough tooth to be able to hold many layers, plus being able to blend the colors with a brush over and over without running out of tooth. I don't like my sanded paper to be too smooth. To me it defeats the purpose of using sanded paper if it's too smooth. On the other hand, there is such a thing as too much tooth! I also tried a miniature piece on La Carte sanded paper and I didn't like it very much, for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it appears to be too rough for me - but that's for another post.

In addition, I probably put about five layers of watercolor pencils and was liberal in my use of water, yet I still have lots of tooth yet to fill! The paper was easy to get flat again after all the water dried - I simply put the paper in a resealable plastic bag, then placed a very heavy, large book on top of it and left it for a day or so. Viola! The paper is flat once again!

Guess I'd better get working on this and finish it so I have time to work on at least a few more.

Enjoy and commeny away!!