Mum's Little Scout by Ruth Dolan

lovely, Ruth. You've got a nice soft dark effect in those background trees and silvery bark effect in foreground log

I agree ,lovely,, excellent work

What patience. Like it Ruth.

Very cute, lovely work, great to have done it all with coloured pencil

This is lovely Ruth. I too enjoy CP work, I find it very relaxing (unlike watercolour LOL ) but it does take forever to build up the colour in very light layers. You've managed to achieve some lovely rich darks in this.

Lovely fur. You mentioned memories of primary school on the forum. This has come a very long way from there. How did you achieve the whites?

Ruth you are spreading your wings, this is lovely.

Thank you all for looking and commenting. CP work is very slow indeed, as you say, Val, so many light layers and it can end up looking like an oil painting depending on which pencils are used. Pat...I achieve the whites by using an imprint method. I indent the white paper with tools which have ends varying in size like small roller balls. the technique is similar to the old rubbings we used to make an imprint of plaques etc. The pencil crayon skims over the top of the indent, leaving a pure white mark where the colour cannot get down into the grain of the paper. Also I use an electric eraser for various shapes. It can be a bit hit and miss as you have no lines to guide your indents though! I do find CP relaxing but it can be hard on the eyes...it's also best not to try too large a work, which I must try to remember in future and not get carried away...

Forgot to add that it's possible to use masking fluid to get the whites, but you can't leave it on too long when you are working so slowly.... A better method is to use Frisk film, but I have yet to try this.

Hi Ruth,Your wildlife drawing are very good indeed,I would love to be able to draw like that,very skillful,alas when i try to draw a horse it ends up looking like a dog and so on. Really nice stuff Russ