Drawing as a child I was constantly being corrected by adults that a leaf must be green, only a flower can be red or other colors, for that's how nature was in Vietnam. I came to Canada one autumn, and the forest of colored leaves opened my eyes and quietly erased old rules. When I drew leaves for art class in 1995 (Rideau H.S), I made sure to use all colors I had. I was delighted that no one tried to correct me.
22 x 30 inches, colored pencils on paper
I had always wanted to re-do this work using higher quality paper. Autumn Leaves is also a great exercise to indulge in intense, high quality colors available to today's artists. If one knows what it took for science to achieve a color that meets the requirements for artist's use, one would be so excited to use all the colors to the detrimental of color harmony. So let's start.
New sketch loosely based on the 1995 version. Leaves are simplified. Gnarling branches are pruned.
Tapes are placed around the edges to obtain clean border. Then coloring commenced.
First rough pass of coloring.
Half way through.
Work desk with the tools. Each color of the pencil is researched and selected carefully for highest of lightfastness (1 to 3). Lightfastness of 4 & 5 are never touched. This significantly cut down the number of colors available to use. Worse case is when essential colors, with no substitute, get discontinued and replaced with inferior ones. I had to hunt local shops for old stocks that rarely showed up.
Pencils are sharpened with an exacto knife. Never with a sharpener. I'm fonded of incensed cedar wood used in them. A wisp of smell brings back an era.
Background is filled. Leaf veins and final details are added. The finished image below.
If the new drawing looks more refined, it's the product of time. I wasn't honing my skill. There's a nostalgia in the old drawing. It has a crude quality of a child. A quality I can't go back to even if I tried.
