Trial Run

I decided to give my recycling piece a trial run today. Instead of cutting layers and glueing them down I just decided to sketch in the major outlines and fill in the various values with either pencil or paint. 

Here’s my sketch.

Sketch

I did some stitching on a piece of my Dad’s vellum and then shaded the various parts with pencil. I forgot how shiny graphite pencils can be when creating dark shades especially when pressing really hard. I don’t like the shiny look. It doesn’t look as shiny when photographed, but believe me it was shiny…especially the men.

Pencil

Then I painted over this with acrylic paints. Not shiny anymore. So I’m not sure which way to go. I’ve read up on how to avoid shiny graphite in sketches. I will try those techniques. Here’s the piece with paint to achieve the values. 

Paint

I still have to refine my sketch. There are areas like those near their feet that need to be figured out. When I do my actual piece I think I will stitch in some of the details from my Dad’s drawing. I will add more stitching to the men. Plus there’s all the hand stitching….hoses, jackhammers, crane, etc that need to be added. 

Which do you like better? The one done with pencils or the one done with paint?

Thanks for reading.

Chris