This post shows the step by step process of making my drawing “Lake District”.
I used Derwent Artists colored pencils for the drawing, and did it on a 5″ x 7.5″ piece of “Dover” colored Alphamat. The finished drawing measures 4.5″ x 7″, or approximately 11 cm x 18 cm.
The Derwent Artists colors that I used for this small drawing are:
- Orange Chrome
- Zinc Yellow
- Emerald Green
- Mineral Green
- Cobalt Blue
- Light Blue
- Imperial Purple
- Chinese White
- Chocolate
- Venetian Red
- Raw Sienna
I found the location in England, using Google Maps Street View.
When I locate a scene using Street View, I actually photograph the computer screen with my digital camera of the location I intend to draw. I have grown so comfortable with my little point-and-shoot Canon, that it’s easier for me to snap a photo of the screen than it is to do a ’screen shot’.
I load the digital photo onto my computer, do some cropping and adjust the color, then print out a copy on inexpensive copy paper of the scene I will draw.
Then I cut up the copy and trace around the cut out pieces on the Alphamat . This post gives a description of that part of the process.
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This first drawing shows some of my Chinese White outlines from tracing around the cut out pieces, and the beginning of the filling in process. The colors so far are: Cobalt Blue, Light Blue, Chinese White, Chocolate, Emerald Green, and Venetian Red.
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In this second step, I am adding Chocolate, the dark brown in the trees and details on the barn, but I’m not applying heavy pressure in this step. I am working at getting an overall, light application of each of the colors in their respective locations. While the general process I use is a “light to dark” application, that refers more to the amount of pressure I use than the actual colors.
I did fill in the bright light area in the center, between the barn and the trees, which is a combination of Zinc Yellow and Chinese White.
At the early stage of my drawings on a darker background, I like to fill in the whites and lights, so there is less chance of me muddying those areas with other colors. I have a tendency to get going on a drawing, having great fun “coloring in”, and not pay attention to where it is actually that I am “coloring in”. Often I put the wrong color in the wrong place! Derwent Artists colored pencils, on this texture board, will erase cleanly at this stage, but if I get the whites in first it helps keep me from coloring the parts that should be white or yellow, not purple or brown!
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This is a continuation of light application of additional colors. I have pretty much filled the sky with Chinese White, and have even begun to add a ’second layer’ of Chocolate to parts of the rock wall and the trees. I am starting to add little details, but this is still very much a beginning stage of the drawing. Bits of Orange Chrome in the trees, and spots of Imperial Purple on the stream bank on the left, and on the barn roof.
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At this stage of the drawing, every color that will be in the finished drawing is in its place, so I’m pretty much safe from putting a color in the wrong place! Whew! 
Now I have to concentrate on not making the mountains in the background more color intense that the barn and stuff in the foreground. I will add more color layers to the mountains, as they are quite colorful, but the overall impression of the mountains needs to be of less color than the foreground to keep them looking like they are off in the distance.
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I have gone back in with the Chinese White to lighten the bright sunny spot in the center of the drawing, and to lighten the mountains and sky. I added more color layers to the mountains… Cobalt Blue and Venetian Red, bits of Imperial Purple. I added hints of Chinese White to the grassy pasture in the foreground, to indicate clumps of grass and create ‘direction’ to the flat ground. I added more work to the left-hand side of the drawing, better defining the stream and roadside. Raw Sienna, Mineral Green and Cobalt Blue were added in the trees.
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This is the finished drawing. I loved finding this scene in The Lake District of England. I have never travelled to the UK, and am very appreciative of the ability to “visit” using Google Maps Street View.
Hope you liked seeing this drawing in process. if you ever have any questions about what I did, send me an email, and I’ll see if I can give an answer.
Leslie
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