Fox and Foxgloves
- Kaaren Poole
- May 12
- 2 min read
Creating this sweet fox fairy felt like a long slog (about ten hours), but it was worth it, as every piece I do with colored pencil helps me learn the medium. And there’s quite a bit to learn. Not only is there handling the pencils and learning the various ways to work with them, but there’s also the matter of which paper to choose.
Yesterday I watched the first of three video projects in a colored pencil event with Bonny Snowdon. She was working on hot press watercolor paper. I was surprised to see that her pencils were skipping over the texture of the paper leaving white flecks showing, as I've always considered hot press to be a very smooth paper. This was particularly true when she was using light pressure, but less so with medium pressure.
For this piece, I worked on Strathmore Mixed Media paper, series 400. I almost always use this paper. It works well—at least as far as I’m concerned, though I admit I’m no expert on papers—for drawing, acrylic, watercolor, and collage. And since I sometimes don’t know what medium I’ll use when I begin a drawing, it seems a good, safe choice.
After I finished with my line drawing, I began to ink it.
I wish I hadn’t started the ink, though. It locked me into a certain look before I’d thought it through. Nonetheless, once I’d started there was nothing to do but go ahead and finish.
Then I started my colored pencil work.
I didn’t like the ink because it gave me sort of a coloring book look. So, one of my goals became trying to thwart that outcome. This meant I needed to add a lot more color.
Eventually, with colored pencil layer after colored pencil layer, I was happy.
At the very end, I added white highlights in the eyes with a fine, white Posca pen.
I’ve scanned the piece and put it in my Redbubble shop.
But I’m not done yet. My plan is to glue the drawing to a board and add metallics. That will be so fun, and I should then have a nice piece of wall art. Wouldn’t it be great if metallics came across in the print process? Maybe some day.
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