Mice at a Tea Party

After I finished “Mice in the Meadow,” I found that the little creatures were still on my mind and I wanted to draw them again. This time I found them at a tea party and chose to portray the scene with quite a bit of detail.

The drawing took many hours working with pencil to get it right, then I added the ink. I thought ink would be a good idea because of the complexity of the drawing. I thought it might be difficult to follow the pencil lines once I was adding color, plus there were many lines that needed to be erased but were too tiny to erase individually. I was glad to find a cool gray pen, as I thought that color would be less intrusive than black or sepia. Then, once I let the ink dry overnight, I was able to erase all the pencil.

starting with the color on "Mice at a Tea Party"

As you can see, the mice are holding their get-together in an idyllic setting. They’re surrounded by a lovely stand of ferns and clumps of violets. There are even a few trilliums! And they’re so lucky to have found these flat-topped mushrooms for tables. Perfect!

For the drawing, I began by lightly sketching the outlines of the mice. I settled on a general composition of a line of mice on a landscape orientation piece because I’d like to try this piece on Redbubble if it words out. I’ve found that this shape works well on many of the Redbubble products that I like best.

As the drawing progressed, the first problem I encountered was deciding what surface they’d be laying out the tea on. I thought of mushrooms, but it wasn’t until I remembered the types of mushroom whose tops are pretty flat with turned-up edges (or maybe I imagined them) that I'd found my tables.

Then I needed something low for the foreground and decided on violets. They’re one of my favorite flowers. But now that I think about it, I guess it would be good to leave my comfort zone. Maybe next time…

Now that I think about it a little more, I realize how deep some memories of my childhood that I hold within me are. One of my favorite things was walking in the woods near our house in northeastern Ohio, especially in the spring time. There were ferns, and trilliums, and May apples, and wood violets. The special thing about the violets is that there were not only purple ones, but also white ones and yellow ones. Considering this, it’s not odd that I so often turn to ferns and violets in my art work.

Now that the drawing is finished, I’m working in colored pencil. It’s slow going, as I knew it would be. But I chose this medium because it’s so good for working in tiny areas. On the other hand, I find it difficult to build up good value contrast, but we’ll just have to see how it goes. I will probably need to apply workable fixative part way through to give me more tooth on my surface.

I began with the ferns and selected three groups of greens—one for the nearest ferns, one for the farthest, and one for those in the middle. I thought this variety would not only suggest a little depth but also be more interesting. And I went quite yellow for the lightest colors. I may very well alter this in later layers.

Next, I turned to blues between the ferns. Nothing is dark so far, and I think I’ll continue that way, at least through this entire first layer.

As I mentioned, the work is slow, but I find it relaxing and satisfying. I think it’s harder to make a big mistake if one proceeds slowly. Also, I can erase even the colored pencil. At least, to some extent.

So, back to it. Maybe I’ll have finished it when I’m back for next week’s post.

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