Light and dark
by Jonathan Newey

In this article I am going to describe how I use light and dark coloured pencil on coloured or dark mountboard to achieve a three dimensional appearance.

I always start, in whatever medium I am using, by determining where the light is coming from. There is only, or should only be, one light source, and it is very important to maintain the same light direction throughout the picture.

Every shape and every contour, no matter how large or small, will have a light and dark side. Without light there is no dark and without both of these there is no form. It is form that enables us to create three-dimensional pictures on a two-dimensional surface.

Right, that's the philosophy lesson out of the way. Now down to the fun bit!

The first thing I draw is the outline. If the outline is in shadow, I draw it with a dark colour. If it is catching the light, I draw a light colour outline. You can see this on detail of the trunk of the elephant.

Once I have done this I start with the colour. In the elephant picture I worked on each individual wrinkle starting by filling in with the basic colour (in this case a light raw sienna), overlaid with white for the highlight, and a dark brown for the shadow. I then started to use numerous other colours such as blue and grey, and in some places green, to achieve a natural, weather beaten look. Once I am happy with the colour I go back in with the light and dark colours, not only to re-define the edges, but also the white will soften the pencil strokes when I gently apply it on top of the colour. At this stage I step back from the picture to look at it and decide if any other work needs doing to it. If I feel I have overdone it and need to lift out colour, I use a scalpel to gently scratch some off.

A lot of people ask me how I achieved the feeling of the eye poking out from the board. This is purely due to the shadow underneath, as can be seen in the finished picture.

The materials I use are Derwent Watercolour Pencils (used dry) and Daler Mountboard.