WALKTHROUGH: Mooncatcher
Hello Moonbeams,
I have another graphite walkthrough for you, this time of my piece Mooncatcher She is about the size of a small tarot card and was created for my We Are Smoke and Gold collection
Surface: Strathmore mixed media paper.
Pencils: Staedtler 925 .05mm mechanical pencil, 2B lead Zebra DelGuard .03mm mechanical pencil, 2B lead Staedtler 2mm lead holder, 4B lead
Gold Leaf: 24K gold leaf applied with Kölner Miniatum from Golden Leaf Products
I began by sketching her out with my .5mm mechanical pencil. What began as a normal owl got a bit of personality as I went along!
Once I had the sketch finalized I began rendering out her wings using a mix of my 2mm lead holder, and my .03mm mechanical pencil for capturing the finer details of the feathers.
I moved onto her body, still using a mix of my lead holder and .03mm pencil. My goal is not to achieve a totally smooth texture because I love it when the "toothiness" of the paper comes through, creating many little grainy inconsistencies I can then base additional textures on.
As I finished out the owl I began to fill in the background mostly with my lead holder at first.
I love the lead holder as it covers the paper more quickly but because it is so thick, it tends to sit on the surface texture of the paper so I will often go in and "smooth" things out by using smaller mechanical pencils to get into the little crevices. Although again, I still love the inconsistencies the paper texture creates so I do not try to totally eliminate it.
Once the basic background was filled in, I took my kneadable eraser and erased some stars. I then took my .03mm pencil and filled in more dark values around them, and gave them their points.
I also created additional values and textures in the background as a whole and used my kneadable erases to make sure the owl popped against the background.
Finally, I added some 24K gold leaf and any final highlights I felt the piece needed and sprayed it with a UV protective matte varnish before putting it on its custom display card as seen below.
I hope you enjoyed this mini walkthrough!
~ Aria
