aprylstottdesign.com Blog

I pulled out my beloved pastels a few nights ago & thought I’d share the process I used to make this:

I knew I wanted to collage it together in photoshop so that I could really make the edges of the shapes crisp, so I made the flowers on blue paper (thinking it would contrast well with the red).

Here’s the sketch that I started out with:

I transferred the sketch to the blue paper by coloring the back of the sketch with graphite & using a ball point pen to transfer the drawing. I used some crazy bright red to punch up the sketch, then put in the shadows with a lighter blue/gray and greenish/gray (technical color names, I know). Here you can see as I start to add white:

And this is what my desk looks like when I work (A MESS!)

Once the pastel was finished, I scanned it into photoshop & collaged it onto the red background (which is actually just a 4×4″ square of red pastel on orange paper that I blew up to fit the image). I didn’t use any fixative (it always changes the drawing & I’m sad after I spray it).

I’m going to be working on a few more this week & then hopefully I have some more to show you.

Now, my question for you: Is the bee getting lost? Do I need to make him bigger/more contrast/more highlights? Any other comments or suggestions?

xo