P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell

Grasses V, mixed media on art board

This continuation of my texture meditations started with embossing & black conte crayon, then graphite pencil. It was very dull, but I did not want high contrast black & white, so I added a little color.

I used colored pencil (including metallics), pan pastel, and for the extra touch you cannot really see in this image a three colored silk threads…

This tangled twig drawing on paper evokes a nest of snakes … and it is getting more interesting. At first it was soft, delicate and irritatingly bland…

Tangled Twigs VI, maybe finished

I worked on it but my efforts to add & improve were failing, so I set it aside. Returning to it now, I am bolder with changes. The large ghost leaf/nest is a new major addition, and it has more contrast, and more but less vivid color.

Curly Twig Tangle VI, early draft

I don’t love it, and wish I had chosen different colors, but it does work better. The lower image is a scan of an early draft before the recent work.

Unfortunately the muted purple Prismacolor pencil I used is one that bleeds vivid magenta with spray fixative! It took a lot of work to mute that ghastly effect. I need to test my colors for this problem: it seems several purple shades do this, and there may be a few other colors that separate and bleed!

Grass Bundles I

A meditation in texture, above, then a digital collage of three drawings:

Grasses I collage w/ Leaves

Tangled Twigs VII, draft 9

I guess that “egg” needed a little more reality!