Wax Bloom

So there’s a reason I called my most recent drawing Ganz, the Sequel. This is the second time I have drawn my friend Steve Ganz, the first being in March of 2007. This was not terribly long after I had returned to drawing, and was just my 5th after returning from a considerably long hiatus from art. 

I’d like this post to serve as a reminder to myself, as well as those of you out there who may be faltering in your quest to refine your abilities, or not feeling like you are making enough progress fast enough – because Lord knows I feel that way a lot. I have been drawing for a few hours nearly every day for the past year and a half, and I want to share with you the progress I have made in that time in both ability, competence with the medium, color and composition. 

March 2007 vs October 2008

Seriously, looking at that feels really, really good.

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ta-da!

Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x 9"

I’m really pleased with the way this one came out…might have to hold onto this one instead of handing it over to the subject.

And now on to the next one!!

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One more session should wrap this one up!

Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x 9″

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Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x 9″

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Here’s where the portrait stands this morning:

Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x 9"

And as promised, here are a couple more close-up shots taken in better light. Images link to their full sized counterpart:

And lastly, compiled for a question from a Flickr user, this is the palette I am using with this drawing:

• Peach
• Nectar
• Beige
• Blush Pink
• Copenhagen Blue
• Dark Umber
• White
• Terra Cotta
• Salmon Pink
• Light Umber
• Sand
• Light Peach
• Blue Slate
• Moss Green
• Scarlet Lake
• Deco Pink (used sparingly, as just a tiny tiny nub is all thats left of this discontinued color)
• Cream
• Pink Rose
• Sky Blue Light
• Sienna Brown
• Burnt Ochre
• Crimson Lake
• Peacock Blue
• Warm Gray 90%
• Black
• Derwent Rose Pink (poor substitute for Deco Pink)
• Cool Gray 70%
• Sandbar Brown
• Dark Green
• Cool Gray 10%
• Warm Gray 30%
• Cool Gray 50%
• Yellow Ochre
• Parma Violet
• Lilac

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A couple of folks have asked if I would post close up, high resolution photos of this drawing to allow them to better examine the color layering and pencil strokes. Hopefully these are what you guys are after – the images link to their original 3888×2592 photos. I’ll take some additional photos tomorrow morning in daylight for better color accuracy – these are all a bit on the red side.

My stroke is always small, circular motions. I leave lots of gaps when laying down initial layers for other colors to fill in. For the most part its fairly erratic as you can tell from what’s been laid down on the fringes.

Here’s where the drawing stands at the moment, by the way:

And for no particular reason, here’s a photo of my pencils that I thought turned out interesting:

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nosed and lipped:

Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x9″

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Nearly a half-ganz:

Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x 9″

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The image on the left is the one I took with my old point-and-shoot. The one on the right is with my new camera, and is incredibly faithful to the original drawing.

I obvisously have a lot of re-shooting to do.

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I took this with my new Canon Digital Rebel XTi – a 10.1MP DSLR, and another notch off of my goals for this year to get a better setup for photographing my work. I’ll be updating some of my other work with new photographs later.

Ganz, The Sequel | Colored Pencil on Pastelbord | 12 x 9″

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