![\"Debutante](\"https:\/\/lydiasteeves.com\/lydiasblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Debutante-Colored-Pencils-Club-2015-300x224.jpg\")
![\"Debutante](\"https:\/\/lydiasteeves.com\/lydiasblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Debutante-light-Colored-Pencils-Club-2015-300x231.jpg\")
The choice of background colour makes a huge difference to the mood, feeling, palette choice and procedure of creating art.<\/p>\n The choice of background colour makes a huge difference to the mood, feeling, palette choice and procedure of creating art.<\/p>\n
Debutante was originally designed for the darker background. Although it was a hot summer day my setting is my shady backyard. My subject matter is Mama chipmunk with her baby. There they are…perched at the edge of the patio looking through the leaves into the world beyond. Even though I wasn’t going for the big scary world, it is definitely a world of unknowns and perhaps Mama is telling her young one. You are ready now to take it on yourself.<\/p>\n
Using black or a dark colour for the background is wonderful for help with creating the darker and mid-values. And surprisingly it wasn’t all that difficult getting the brighter values with my coloured pencil.<\/p>\n
Two of my favourite “additions” to coloured pencil – OMS and pan pastels are not as effective on dark paper.<\/p>\n
When I decided to redo this design on the light background I\u00a0 found out very quickly that the mood of the piece changed dramatically. The heat of the summer day is keenly felt with the bright yellow sunshine background and the long cool shadows. The focus changes from the chipmunks looking out to the big world to having fun in the sun.\u00a0 In fact, I probably would not call this piece Debutante anymore.<\/p>\n
For this piece I had to work harder on the mid-values and the darks. I used the OMS to help me blend and I had to add a colour or two to the palette. And surprise, surprise I actually had to work a little harder to get my whites! The pan pastels were the perfect addition to the background to get the sunshine yellow!<\/p>\n
Although I enjoyed doing both of these pieces….as well as the results……I have to ask myself what I was trying to achieve? What was my message? Because the answer to that question\u00a0 was to depict the introducing of the young one to the bigger world my original decision is still the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The choice of background colour makes a huge difference to the mood, feeling, palette choice and procedure of creating art. Debutante was originally designed for the darker background. Although it was a hot summer day my setting is my shady … Continue reading