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I've started another yarn piece, and thought I'd do a work in progress, 'cause I know you all like that kind of thing.

Its 5 x 7, on Strathmore illustration board.


These are the first 4 steps. Doesn't look like much yet, does it?

Here's how I start.
Step 1: Scribble a basic design.

Its hard to see, but believe it or not I darkened it in Photoshop already so that it would at least show up!
I use an HB or similar lead to lightly draw out an overlapping serpentine pattern. I don't over think this. I may sit and get an impression of how complex or simple or something else that I'd like it to be. Then I just let my hand go. Its very intuitive, and the curves have to feel natural.
This takes about 30 seconds.


Step 2: Work out the over/under pattern.


There's a lot of work in this step. I redraw out each strand of yarn, giving it dimension. I also figure out the over/under pattern, which is what its all about. I adjust loops that are off a bit so that the design works. I'm still using a regular graphite pencil here. Reason is, I want to be able to erase it off in the next step. Colored pencil doesn't erase all the way, graphite does.
Again, I darkened it up to show you, but really, its a lot lighter.

This step takes the most brain power. You have to have slept well the night before (or had a good nap) and had your coffee before you tackle this. Its harder than it looks to work out. Its not rocket science, but it does take a bit of concentration.


Step 3: Outline with color.

In this step I go over all the lines again with the colors I'm going to use. First, I take an eraser and go over the whole graphite line drawing lightly to bring it down to where I can just barely make it out. Then I start going over the lines with the color.

For this I decided to start with all Derwent Drawing pencils, in Fall-ish colors, just because I had them sitting there. I like these pencils, they remind a lot of Coloursofts (they're made by the same company). The colors I used are Chocolate, Sepia, Sanguine and Brown Ochre.

As I go I further erase any graphite. I keep the colored pencil light too, again, erasing the whole thing down to almost a color "stain" on the board, and also paying attention to any 'hot spots' that occur (that's places where it gets darker, usually where two lines join up).


Step 4: First layer of color.

Here I just color in the strands with the same color they were outlined with. This is definitely the "ugly stage". It has a long way to go, but at least the pattern and basic colors are established. Now I can have fun!

More tomorrow, or more likely the next day. Tomorrow I have tons to do.

Are Mondays crazy for all of you too? I don't know what it is ~ I always run around like a chicken with my head cut off on Monday. Errands and miscellaneous busy work rule the day, usually. I also find that Monday is the day I'm most likely to "just pick something up" for dinner while I'm out, like an already roasted chicken or some other take-out kind of thing.
And I hope to god its not 98 again like all this weekend. Isn't it FALL? My air conditioning is on as we speak, and its 8:00 at night. Whine whine.

SOLD


2.5 x 3.5
Polychromo pencil on board

I'm back to my Polychromos! That last one, the Cretacolor, just irked me enough that I had to go back to my faves. You know how when you go on vacation and sleep in hotels and try all new things, then you come home and sleep in your own bed and go "Ahhhhhhh"...well that's how my Polychromos feel to me.

I did this with just the Dark Sepia one.
You can hardly tell that's a pear underneath all that yarn, but yep, its there.

So check this out: (click it to make it bigger)


Look at how greenish the Polychromo sepia looks compared to the others!
My favorite "non black" here is the Chocolate Derwent Drawing pencil, by far.
I do like the Cretacolor Dark Sepia COLOR, but hate working with the pencil.
My favorite pencils to work with are still the Polychromos, but I can deal with the Derwent.

There's one more I want to try before the jury is all in. I need to do some Coloursofts and see what I can do with those, then I'll make my decision.

To see all the Yarn pieces in this series side-by-side, please go here. Or visit my ebay store to see which are available for sale.
All images and content herein are © Paula Pertile and may not be used or reproduced without permission.

Fort Gehenna, Arivaipa Territory, is a month from Podunk, a week from Nowhere and two days from Wherethehell. From a distance the fort looks like a conglomeration of mud huts melting under a sky hot enough to smelt iron. Not at all does it look like the outpost of civilization on a wild untamed frontier that it is. An outpost Gehenna may be, but lacking in most of the trappings that make civilization civilized. What Gehenna has is: three bored officers, their various bored dependents, sixty-five bored soldiers, a herd of scabby horses and fractious mules, a hell of a lot of dogs, and one canny cat. What it lacks is a long list but to start: no ice, no grass, no trees, no hope. The heat doesn't help matters either. It's high summer in Gehenna and it's hot. Hot enough to melt metal, hot enough to burn leather, hot enough to curdle a soldier's brains right in her skull. The heat sucks all moisture, all vigour, all life right out of a body. At Gehenna, daylight is not so very far from death.

In theory, Fort Gehenna guards the border between Arivaipa Territory, a client of the Republic of Califa, and the ominous Huitzil Empire, with which Califa is currently at war. But in practice, there is no true border, only a haze of hot sand and prickly cactus that no one can cross and expect to live. The glory of war is being gained elsewhere, and the sweating soldiers at Gehenna are mostly bored, hot, and nostalgic for home.

To the west of Gehenna the Stoneman Road ruts its way across the Sandy River (more of a trickle than an actual flow) to Calo Res, Toronado and Civilization Beyond. To the east the Abrazas Mountain looms, its snowy heights a distant tantalizing vision of clarity and coolness. To the north, unnamed mountains bristle with cactii. To the south, raw desert, sandy and barren, beyond which lies the Huitzil Empire. And everywhere above: the blue burning sky.