Sequence of drawings.

My first Moonbase pictures.

1. I was really pleased with this, as I expected it to be much harder to get the shading to look reasonable. When I had finished the actual drawing I was then faced with the problem of how to put in a black background. I tried using black graphitint pencil and then a wash over it, but it didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. I have put up the different stages of the work as it progressed; I am most pleased with the finished drawing that hasn’t had the background done! Oh well, back to the drawing board!

I then decided to try doing Moonbase in pastels on black:

Although I really enjoyed doing Moonbase in pencil and pastels, i think the acrylic version is preferable!

Well, I had the paints at work, so I thought I would continue with the Moonbase theme. This was much harder to do, because I didnt have a good picture of an Interceptor from which to work. I took a scan of the picture when I had been working on it for a few hours, and then the finished picture. It’s not one that I think I will keep though, as the moonscape is not very good, and the ‘engine’ section of the Interceptor is too vague and unformed.

This is the finished piece.

Sky One. Drawn in pencil on card.

1.Initial drawing2. Next stage

3. Still a work in progress.

4. CompletedThis took me about 14 hours to complete

I do a considerable amount of art work with the different pupils that I teach and I like to work on something at the same time as they are drawing or whatever (it makes the atmosphere in my classroom much more relaxed). For the last few weeks I have been working on a picture of Moonbase. I like the geometry of Moonbase and the contrasts between light and shade. Initially I started this picture in pastels and chalks, but I decided to go over what I had done in acrylics.
In retrospect I should probably have started again, but I was only ‘playing around’ with the idea. However, after several hours work, and at least a dozen layers of paint I thought it was worth carrying on. It’s not perfect, not by a long way, but I was working in a small space, with cheap brushes and paints and frequent distractions.
Here is the finished result.

I started this to show a pupil how I used chalks and pastels in my drawings.
I think that I should have done it on a smoother piece of black paper instead of A4 black card, which has a rough texture and therefore doesn’t ‘hold’ the chalk as well as I would have liked. But, as with all my ‘drawings’ I do them for fun and my own pleasure. If you like them as well, that is fine, but they are very rough!

I had to build up several layers of chalks etc to get the depth of colour but having got to this point I thought it was worth continuing with it.

I trimmed the picture and double mounted it because I wanted the ‘whiteness’ of the heat of ‘re-entry’ to stand out, and the white frame helps to do that. I might try the same picture using coloured pastels which would be a very different challenge.
LtCdr
And below…… the final result.

Media used:
Conte chalks (white and shades of grey)
Faber-Castell Pitt Pastels
Compressed Chalks
assorted ‘stumps’ for blending
(And lots of putty rubbers!)
Smart-Price hair spray!! ( cheapest fixative for chalks and pastels!)