I have been working on a drawing of a sharp-shinned hawk resting on some leaves. It's on blue Canson Mi-tientes paper. Last night when I finished drawing I noticed that there is a smear/discoloration on the paper, about 5 inches or so above the hawk. It won't come off with an eraser, and I had to stop trying, as the paper was starting to show some wear there. I think it's from some glue, but I'm not sure. (I use glue to repair my broken pencil leads and attach small pencils to the ends of new pencils.) I can crop the piece to eliminate the mark, but I wanted to have a leaf floating down over the bird, and needed that space to do so.
I don't know how it happened, as I use a barrel stave to rest my arm on, and I've never had anything like this happen before. So I am wondering if anyone has had this happen and/or has some advice for me. Thanks!
14 comments:
If cropping or starting over is not an option, then my best advise would be to somehow camouflage the stain. Don't attempt to remove the stain any further as you will damage the paper. Could you somehow create a background? Watercolor pencils and Lyra Splender work wonders. Good luck.
If this happened to me, I would (after yelling, fuming, pacing, and muttering) do my best to incorporate the spot into my drawing. I would remind myself that brown oak leaves are not perfect things... they have blemishes. So, that floating-down leaf would accept the damned spot, and that would be that!
Best of luck, Debbi!
Thanks Chantell and Liz,
I appreciate your advice. I can't camouflage the stain, really, because it won't take any pigment. (It really must be some glue. .. ) I think I'm going to crop the drawing and rework incorporating another leaf, maybe in the background, but lower down, resting on the ground, foreshortened, to add depth. In the meantime, it's going on the back burner as I have a commission to complete by the third week of January. Thanks!
This drawing is exquisite, ... I can't help you... I know nothing about the medium or the materials... But it soooooooo worth saving... Could the leaf you're going to put float over the spot and camouflage it???
Have a wonderful 2009.
I am not sure if it would work on this surface, but perhaps using a tiny bit of gamsol solvent applied with a small brush, then lifting color once softened with a tissue. I hope you'll find a way to make it work, because it would be a shame to loose this piece.
Have you tried to gently scrape off the glue with an Exacto knife?
I think that would most likely ruin the paper, Kendra, as it's not very thick. I'm going to let it sit for a while and think about how I want to proceed, and see what seems best.
Kendra, could this be a use for blue tinted Colourfix primer?
I could always cover it with some gesso and then try painting or drawing over that. It doesn't have to stay 100% colored pencil.
I appreciate your comments as well,
Marian and Christine.
Debbi, I've been studying your hawk drawing. I think that cropping would actually add further interest to the piece. Since you positioned the subject in a horizontal fashion, cropping horizontally can accentuate its beauty. This might be a happy accident in the making. Please don't give up on it.
Thanks Chantell. I'm not going to give up on it. I think I'm going to do as you mention and crop it. I appreciate your input. It's interesting, because all along I've looked at the "mark" as a change presenting itself, whether I like it or not. I'm trying to be philosophical about this journey. I wouldn't abandon it.
You could try a woodworking technique that is used to fix blemishes. This is a meticulous operation, but you could practice on some scrap paper (of the same type). It's worth a try, and if it doesn't work, proceed to plan B; crop the piece.
You cut (with an extremely sharp exacto knife) an irregular (no straight lines) outline that encompasses the blemish. But before you cut the piece, you lay a second piece of paper underneath.
After the blemish has been cut out, you'll have a good piece (from the bottom paper) that fits perfectly in the irregular shaped hole. This new little piece is glued to another piece of paper, which then gets attached to the bottom of your artwork.
Now you can draw your leaf, hopefully in such a way that the irregular lines blend into the image. You'll always know it's there, but nobody else will.
BTW, it would take more planning, but if you sketched the leaf first you would know the best shape of the cutout, one where the cut lines follow some of the lines of your leaf.
Thanks Marty! What an intricate and intriguing idea. I think I will try that sometime on a "test". Thanks for the lengthy explanation as well. Very cool idea.
I don't do many colored pencils but read somewhere just recently that someone painted over areas with acrylic paint and then did pencil over that. Ah, found it on < Blueberries, Art and Life.
Another good idea - thank you Jo! I will check out that link. This has been such a great venue for getting advice from people. Thanks for checking in.
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