imaginary landscape

Mountain Corrie, coloured pencil on buff paper, approx 8 ins, Vivien Blackburn

This one is purely an imaginary landscape with heightened colour. I felt like experimenting with the coloured pencils in a sketchbook with buff coloured pages. There are elements of remembered places in Wales and Scotland that feed into the landscape but it isn't anywhere in particular.

It was a fiend to photograph and get the colours accurate. This is as close as I can get, it is slightly less purple in reality I think. I do find cp's difficult to scan or photograph with any accuracy on the colour overlays. I've altered saturation and colour balances and brightness and more to try to get it close.

I started out with the dynamic lines I intended from a digital image done a long time ago but I knew I wanted the work to evolve in its own way. It's now very different from its starting point.

When I do work like this I only have a very sketchy idea of where it's going when I start. It evolves and changes like jazz rather than classical music that has clear rules and guidelines. That's easy enough in oils or acrylics but not quite so easy with cp's as you can't paint out sections in major changes! It came together in the end with lots of glazes and layers of colour that don't show up well in reproduction :>(

The original digital image - it's one of my favourite digital images and I didn't want to simply reproduce it. It already exists in its own right - I just wanted to take the shapes and play - some altered considerably as I worked and some remained very similar. I want to do some more work based on this series, some large abstract canvasses too that remain simpler like the digital work. I rather overcomplicated this one I think - which is partly to do with the medium. With large paintbrushes it's easier to retain a simplicity. Sharp pencils want to add detail!

Comments

Genie said…
Lovely work
Teresa Mallen said…
Well hey, my favourite medium :-)

Your imaginary landscape is just delicious!

I don't normally have trouble photographing or scanning my cp work but gosh my last piece was a stinker...I tried different locations, different lighting and different camera settings and the final image is still off somewhat! I share your frustration Vivien. Having said that, the version of your art that I am seeing on my computer is very interesting and a joy to look at. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Katiejane said…
This is simply beautiful! I like it very much.
Anita Davies said…
Amazing colour Vivien
vivien said…
thank you all :>)

I may play with this again later in paint and on a larger scale
Robyn Sinclair said…
Very, very appealing and magical, Vivien. I love your square format pictures.

I really need to play with photoshop's colour correction more because I too am having lots of problems photographing paintngs at present.
It's Brigadoon - and the heather's on the hills :o) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fYVJgwBhRE&feature=related)
Beautiful soft colouring here, Vivien, just like on the banks of Loch Lomond, fishing for trout wi' the Scotch Mist runnin' down my neck! You're a dab hand wi' the cp's.
And I really like the wc! Great abstract shapes and soft highland colours again. Wish I could see it larger somewhere?
Anita said…
I'm thinking more and more of working like this - I am really into the organic quality of work like this - unhindered by boundaries of reality. You might just push me over the edge! I always find your work so inspiring.
vivien said…
Robyn thanks! oh the colour correction stuff is great - have a play with curves as well, it does some wild things!

Do you use Levels? that's really helpful in balancing tone and colour.

oh my goodness David! it IS Brigadoon!!!! fantastic utube!

I lived up in the north of Scotland for a few years when I was at school - I did my Scottish Lowers up there at Forres Academy - where the dour Rector (headmaster)said he 'hated the English and the RAF in that orrrderr' - guess what my dad did :>). I studied Macbeth whilst living just a few miles from Cawdor :>)

Go for it Anita :>)
I love both these images Vivien, the original digital one with which you've played around beautifully(definitely given digital images some uniqueness!) as well as your imaginative play with it. Captivating colours.
Ronell
vivien said…
thanks Ronell :>)
pete said…
gorgeous, but a bigger image would be most welcome :)

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