The Corner of Her Bedroom

2023-08-01 -

This demonstration shows the progression of a drawing using colored pencil from reference photos through the final strokes. A limited palette of white, black, grays and burnt sienna aims to create a mood of cool sophistication. Layers of semi-transparent colored pencil on gray paper define some of the objects while the paper is left bare for others. The palette is primarily of grays intended to create a gracious and sophisticated atmosphere dramatically lighted by sunlight through a window.

My drawings of interiors are intended to convey an impression or sense of those who live in them. The use of bright light from windows highlighting the subjects and dark shadows provide drama. Titles for my drawings are often important in communicating something about the story. This drawing’s title, The Corner of Her Bedroom, conveys that it is a woman’s bedroom which isn’t clear simply from the drawing alone. Light spills through shutters into a corner furnished with a carved chair. The muted color of the room’s walls, the chair, and the fluted vase are meant to convey a gracious decor. The cool overall tone is suggestive of a reserved woman and the corner’s furnishings look as if they were chosen for style rather than strictly for comfort.

The nearly monochromatic palette of black, white and grays intends to indicate a cool refinement of the space. To add color and a bit of warmth, sienna and dark brown are used for the floor and chair. The curved shape of the chair and vase contrast with the otherwise rectangular elements of the room. Except for the rug, the objects in the drawing have hard edges. The rug’s soft lines and suggested detail of pattern intend to provide texture and counterbalance to the plain surfaces of the other elements.

My Design and Composition Tactics

Important elements used to create my style of realism are color palettes to emphasize mood, light sources that enhance and dramatize the objects, and compositions that lead the viewer through the drawing.

STAGE 1 ASSESSING PHOTO REFERENCES

Many photos are taken of a subject. The final composition may be elements from several photos Photoshopped into one. Care is taken to remove lens distortion as drawings are diminished if it is unintentionally copied.

STAGE 2 SKETCHING AND TRANSFERRING THE DRAWING

The final photo is printed to actual size (A4) in color and black and white. Main shapes are copied onto tracing paper and transferred to the drawing paper taking care to avoid indenting the paper.

STAGE 3 REFINING THE DRAWING

In this stage details not transferred during the tracing are further defined. Working throughout the drawing, I lightly sketch the position of shadows, true up shapes and add more details using a light gray pencil.

STAGE 4 DETERMINING VALUES

The lightest and darkest grays are found on the black and white photo so that middle tones can be determined. A “colorful black” will be created with layers of red, green and indigo blue pencil.

STAGE 5 SHADOWS AND EDGES

Green will be layered over the red layer to create the black shadow. The chair curves are defined using a draftsman template for sharp edges. Marks are made carefully as they are difficult to erase.

STAGE 6 FINAL LAYER OF SHADOW, PLUS BURNISHING

The final layer of the black shadow, indigo blue, is applied. Then the area is burnished with a stencil brush (green brush in the photo). Burnishing mixes and pushes the color into the paper’s texture.

STAGE 7 WORKING ON SHUTTERS

Creating bright whites with semitransparent pencil over gray paper is challenging. Using a waxy Prismacolor pencil, the shutters are colored with multiple layers. A watercolor pencil underpainting could be used to produce an opaque white.

STAGE 8 FILLING IN THE WALL

The dark shadowed wall around the shutters is colored. The dark gray pencil produced pencil crumbs, which contaminated the whites. One solution would have been to isolate the white with tracing paper as I worked.

STAGE 9 SHADOWS ON SHUTTERS

Shadows from the shutters are colored with a mix of warm and cool grays. The slats in the reference photo are at different angles producing shadows that are not parallel. This may be seen as an error.

STAGE 10 FURTHER DARKENING

The shadows on the wall behind the chair are darkened further and drawing on the framed picture on the wall is begun. Several adjustments to the lines of the picture frame improved some perspective issues.

STAGE 11 REFLECTED COLOR ON CHAIR

Sienna added in the shadows on the wall behind the chair shows its reflected color. Planned as a black chair, I changed to a rich dark brown to increase the variety of the picture’s hues.

STAGE 12 FINAL DETAILS

Details of the framed picture, floor, vase and rug are completed. The rug pattern is loosely drawn, and the lines smoothed with a Faber-castell Perfection eraser. This treatment complements the hard edges of other elements.