touch

I am practicing my penciling. I worked backward with my pencils again, starting with an F to sketch out the idea, and then using an H and an HB to solidify the line-work. I also used a 2B and a (rarely used) 4B for some of the darker shading. On my character’s clothes and body, I decided to use straight-line shading marks, rather than full crosshatching. The 2H and F worked well, I think, in this respect in the clothes. For the landscape (grass & ground), I drew minimal grass and then did the rest as a textured gradient (kind of like a “brick” one-way crosshatching). The leaves are in motion/falling, not on the ground (of course, they could be on the ground if you wish to look at them that way). I drew two trees as “bookends” to bring together the character’s position, and so that the observers' focus will (hopefully and mostly) be brought to the character in the top-hand left-centre. Finally (my long-windedness ends), the water is the intended second-focus of the drawing. I used an H pencil to sketch out the shaded areas, blending the shaded areas with the ripples from the stick. I employed my “rub-shading” technique to create a reflective quality to the murkiness of the pond’s water. I know that pond water acts differently than ocean/sea water, in that there are no undercurrents. So, I tried to create a rippling placidness to the water’s surface. This drawing took me about thirty-five minutes to complete. I started it at home and finished it while on the bus.

the seasons
are ripples
within the
reflections
of our waters
and in our deep sleep
we only shimmer
in shattered fragments
on the placid surface