Many of you here seem to favour blending to achieve graduated tone -- until recently I never blended and still don't much except with remarques. The drawing surface is a terror - it's 300gsm coated card so the graphite sits on top of the (calcium carbonate?) coating. It is impossible to erase (it puts a shine on the coating), cannot be fixed (it matts the sheen of the coating), the graphite slides about with ease and a good density of tone is hard to achieve unless it's "carved" into the coating.

BUT everything blends with ease ! So much so that the water is almost entirely drawn with a graphite-loaded tortillon. The dog is drawn with exaggerated highlights, which are then toned down as required by gentle blending - with the occasional highlight picked out with Blu-Tack. Here's the whole thing chopped up to fit your screen(the drawing is 13" long)......and a close up of the dog and blended water. If you think the dog's looking a bit rough and hurried, please bear in mind that this drawing is only 1 1/2" high.

MIKE

www.SibleyFineArt.com
www.Starving-Artists.net

Its always nice to get the job done quickly. I cant sleep well if my artwork is not finished

Glenn

Experience is that marvellous thing that enables you recognise a mistake
when you make it again

I was wondering how you protect the graphite from getting smudged after you finish. A fixative?

Bob

And what is for?

Steph
www.warhorselover.com

Did you have reference photo's when you drew this?

Bob - No fixative! The spay pattern always shows up as matt patches on the coating. I protect them as much as possible from rubbing in transit (this one left for the USA this morning) with instruction on care. Once it's behind glass it's safe but it would smudge so easily with mishandling.

Steve - Allow me to introduce you to the wonderful concept of ADDED VALUE! What I'm offering is a small Mike Sibley original at an affordable price. A remarque (or remark) is a small original drawing in the bottom margin of a print. Usually it is just a single motif - I too draw these but I mainly draw what I call "Panoramic" remarques that extend the full width of the print. Instead of just getting an original drawing of a dog you get a scene that tells a story. They can be very lucrative. I charge £90 / $230 for a panoramic remarque and £65 / $165 for a normal one. Add this to the cost of the print and it turns a £54 / $137 sale into a £144 / $367 one.

Steph - If you produce prints then I think this is something worth looking at.

MIKE

www.SibleyFineArt.com
www.Starving-Artists.net

Quote With this drawing the water is what draws my attention the most, it has alot of movement. I can even imagine the noise the water would make !! Did you have reference photo's when you drew this?

Thank you Bella! Because of the scale I can be quite free and spontaneous with my drawing, which I think helps the water to look lively. I'm only after the suggestion not an actual reality - concentrating more on the emotional reaction than the visual one. I try to hear the water as I'm drawing. Imagine the dog moving forward and picturing where the water would fly and what wake the feet would leave behind. It's such a change from my more controlled drawing style.

In this case I had source photos of the dog and all three ducks. The water is just water and the reeds and grasses are imaginary and just fill in the spaces. I always have source photos for the principal subject (although the head I use might not, for example, belong to the body I'm drawing) but most of the remainder is purely imaginary.

I have really given myself something of a problem with these remarques . Where a painter can simply draw a quick pencil sketch in the margin I really can't do that. As I'm working in pencil I feel that the quality of the remarque should, as far as is possible, match the quality of the work in the print. I treat each one as being what it really is - an original drawing -- and not just one of the 50 I've already drawn for that print but as the ONLY one for that print, because each drawing only has one owner who is not aware of the other versions. I can usually draw one a day with the occasional one taking longer.

MIKE

www.SibleyFineArt.com
www.Starving-Artists.net

I'm sure you and others have already thought of it, but what a great thing it would be to have a screensaver with Mike Sibley prints on it.

I'll even be a "beta tester for you"

MIKE

www.SibleyFineArt.com
www.Starving-Artists.net