Indian Corn

I painted this last autumn in colored pencils. The photo does not do it justice, but I think you can see the essence of the piece.

Often when using colored pencils I use colored pastel paper. In this piece I used burgundy paper. Jack Whitlow, my friend and drawing teacher taught me this. He says the colored paper helps you keep a mid value to work against. As a color painter I cannot appreciate this concept as much as I should. But I see how the color of the paper underlies the drawing and keeps it together. The paper is mostly covered by the colored pencils but it still is the basis of all color coordination for the finished drawing.

This is something I'm growing to appreciate more as my paintings evolve. It is something I'm also learning in my watercolors without the assistance of "colored" paper. The colors in my backgrounds relate to the colors in my foregrounds often with soft edges blending the two together. This pulls the painting together rather than having separations between items in the painting.

If you notice I've referred to my colored pencil drawing as a painting. This is something that is rather new, but something that I have felt strongly about before. There are many opinions on whether colored pencil pictures are called drawings or paintings. I think it has to do with the picture itself. There is so much blending in this piece that I feel it is more of a painting.

Enjoy the autumn