Headteacher Alice, owns the Cygnets Edinburgh Southside branch, but she is also a self-taught artist in her own right. This week she tells us about her favourite art medium to work with, and how having the right tools can give you that added confidence to achieve the artwork you really want.
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Being a self-taught artist for the majority of my life has meant that my most-used and therefore favourable mediums have been the most accessible and so the simple pencil is at the top of my list!
I remember getting my first big set of ‘fancy’ coloured pencils and being so excited about the new possibilities I had for my art now that I had shades in almost every colour. Before this set, I had mainly been using my school’s art supplies or focusing more on crafting as opposed to fine art. Seeing just how many colours I now had available to use got me into drawing my first portraits – something I hadn’t felt ‘good enough’ to attempt before due to only ever having a few standard colours and knowing this wouldn’t achieve the ‘look’ I was after. I also find that the ‘creaminess’ of good coloured pencils allow for amazing blending which I love for drawing skin, specifically in interesting lighting.
Finding a collection of pencils that could work for all the intricacies of colour found within human complexion really helped me to understand lighting, value and tone on a more detailed level and I still reach for this same set all the time. It’s always super satisfying to stare at a reference for long enough to really notice the colours that are there, rather than the colours we assume are there, and having the materials to truly replicate it is a lovely feeling.
Graphite pencils, specifically mechanical ones, have also been an absolute staple in my sketchbooks. I find the precision of the thin lead extremely valuable for my portraits as they allow me to get the super fine details in the skin, eyes and hair. I am practicing this skill all the time and always looking to learn more every time I work.
I love to layer different grades of graphite, by slowly building up the shadows and going back in with a rubber for highlights. I can spend ages working on all the different tones within one piece, again staring at a reference for hours and working away slowly at getting each layer of tone – it surprises me every time how many different shades there are in everything! I know that a lot of people find pencil work very boring due to the lack of colour, but my brain often gets overwhelmed with mediums that require lots of stages that all happen at once and overlap, and I don’t usually have the patience for paint to dry!
My pieces are often made in a state of hyperfixation – I commit to an idea and work away until it’s finished – I can’t seem to make art any other way. A lot of the time, if I want to create but am feeling less motivated, I’ll choose plain graphite to work with, as this is the least overwhelming but I know as soon as I start I’ll be invested. If I am already feeling excited to work and have flowing ideas, I’ll usually pick up my coloured pencils as I find the process with these requires more mental energy from the start.
Below is some of my past portraiture work, which I have taken commissions for, in their unfinished state. I know that in a few months time I will look at these and want to improve them in so many ways, but that’s just part of the artistic process!
