Night Moves
“Night Moves”
oil pastels and coloured pencils. 240 x 350 mm.
April 2018
“We weren’t in love oh no far from it” (Bob Seger sings in “Night Moves“). Nor am I in love with Moulin Rouge but I certainly am captivated by her lit-up sails and their effect on Place Blanche. “I used her, she used me but neither one cared/we were getting our share“. She gives me art, I give her publicity (not that she needs any from me)!!
“Night Moves” is a partner to “Irresistible Blanche”. They are the same size and will hang side by side when exhibited in September.
For those of you interested in my technique using oil pastels as undercoat to coloured pencils, below is the drawing when the oil pastel/undercoat stage was completed. At this point I was ready to begin layering coloured pencils on top. You can read about this technique in my post Brush and Pencil or in the April 2018 issue of Ann Kullberg’s Color – https://annkullberg.com/collections/color-magazine-all-issues
You could say the cake was the oil pastel and the icing the coloured pencils. Cake + icing = delicious!
Delicious indeed!
And it won’t make a person fat.
the pencil gives it the depth and texture. Enchanting
Yes, it really does, Robyn. I could possibly do it all with oil pastels but I like it this way, just using them for the base.
Do you still have to use glass on what you are doing. Wonderful art.
Yes, Susan, I still frame my drawings under glass.
Another beauty for the set. Its interesting, flipping between the oil pastel base and the finished work. At first look, the base is perfectly finished in itself, but the addition of the pencil gives it a depth and intensity, a polish that the oil pastels alone can’t achieve. A brilliant invention!
Hi Anna, I’d like to claim to be the inventor, and maybe I am with the oil pastel/pencil combination but the idea is like what you do – and Degas did – and many other artists – drawing into something else – be it a monoprint or watercolour etc.etc.
The set is at 23 drawings at present as I’ve decided that I don’t like two from last year (already framed because I DID like them) but now I think they aren’t up to it. I will plan for up to, but not exceeding, 30 works.
Hello Julie, I’m a huge fan of your work. On average, how many hours/days/weeks do you work on a single drawing for?
Hi Sheean, thanks for your lovely message. There is no hard and fast rule about how many hours I draw, so I’m not even sure how to answer. I mostly get to my easel every day. Today I’ve been drawing for several hours. Some days I might only use my pencils for one or two hours; other days much more. Since the shut-down of half the world I have found it hard to concentrate so I’ve been doing a lot more reading and a lot less drawing. Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on a drawing that I started a whole month ago. I used to average a drawing every couple of weeks, but nowadays it is more like one drawing per month. Also I take a few days off between drawings because I need a bit of time in between them to reflect on life.