Snack Time for Mrs. Giraffe

I have a habit of giving things, especially animals, honorifics. Mr. Frog. Mrs. Giraffe. Mr. Happy Pants. Mr. Grumpy Britches. Lady Dilly Dally.

Yesterday was the last of the colored pencil classes, and I signed up for more. I have totally enjoyed this class because we are not taught “how” but, instead, explore. Different techniques, tools, paper, colors, and so on. That is what has made this class particularly fun, besides the fact that the teacher is very nice, positive, and comfortable to be around.

This is a giraffe (obvious?) done on Pastelmat sanded paper by Clairfontaine. The surface has a bit of grit on it, but it is really, really fine grit. If you have used Uart 800 paper, this is finer. We drew our giraffes, then used Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits) to refine the giraffe by blurring the colored pencil and softening the edges. From there, a bokeh background with squiggles of color and more Gamsol. Finally, I decided to add some leaves and branches straight to the image, no Gamsol.

This image is a straight Epson V600 scan without color adjustment. Unlike Mr. Frog, this one is not layers and layers of colors, paint, and who knows what else. Fun and easy to do, and to scan.