Flying Colors

I read the Harry Potter books and really enjoyed them. But I was also taken by the illustrations executed by Mary GrandPre for the covers and the beginning of each chapter. She uses pastels for all her work. I thought that could translate to colored pencils, so I did a little test. I loosely copied a bit of her Chamber of Secrets cover just to see. I did use a little pastel (hair highlights) but otherwise this is just colored pencil. I was more interested in the layering of color than duplicating the drawing. You can see a little more of the tooth of the paper maybe than I would like, but that isn't a bad thing. Overall I'm happy with what I'm getting with colored pencils.

Artist's Hand

I think I can work with these. Next step: design a cover for well known children's story...

Colored pencil experiment

I was looking for a new medium to try, and so I broke out my old colored pencils that I never really used before. I started very tentatively - afraid I would "mess it up" even though I was just taking them for a test run. Layering is going to be the key and where my learning curve will be the greatest. Anyway, this just kind of came about - it isn't anyone - it's just a bald dude with a 5pm shadow. i'm not crazy about the ear, and I forgot to give him irises. Oh well. I'll do another one maybe tonight and see if I can improve a little.