Titan portrait in progress 8 - Using paper tooth for color

In this pic you can really see the difference between the tightly-detailed pencilwork of the paw, and the loose pencilwork of the fabric.

For the fabric I'm making use of the blue paper.

In Titan’s rust areas I’m covering the blue paper. 

For Titan’s paw I completely cover the tooth of the paper. In the fabric I make use of the tooth: those tiny “hills and valleys” of the paper texture that show through the pencil pigment (see closeup in next pic). In his paw I don’t want any of those little blue paper bits showing. The paw is mostly “orange”. This shade of blue is the opposite of orange. Tiny spots of blue in the orange tend to make “mud”. (Blue + orange = brownish-grey) So on the paws I apply pigment heavily to completely cover the blue paper color. In the fabric most of what you see is paper color. I’ve used the paper color to do a lot of the “heavy lifting” of creating the fabric’s color. 

That’s one of the main reasons I chose to do this portrait on the “Sky Grey” paper color. The other reason was because it really makes Titan pop. 

FOR COLOR NERDS:

Titan’s rust markings pop on this paper color because orange is the opposite of blue. On a color wheel, orange is opposite blueish-green. That’s called a “complementary color”. Any color tends to “pop” against a background of it’s complementary color. Or when surrounded by it’s complementary color. That is true of all the “orange” tones in Titan’s rust markings (rust browns, reddish browns, muted orange, orangey-yellows). The black areas of Titan’s coat (not visible in this pic)  “pop” on this paper because they are so much darker than the light blue paper. I chose this particular paper color because of the fabric, and because of Titan. The only two things in this artwork.

2

In this extreme close-up you can see the paper tooth: the little valleys in the paper texture. The little valleys show through in the fabric where I’ve applied pencil pigment to the “tops of the mountains”. In the paw I’ve applied hard pressure to push the pencil pigment down into those valleys so no blue paper shows through. 

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Sky Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 16 x 20 inches.

Portrait of Titan, in progress

Commissioned by Alicia McCarthy.