Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Out of the Attic: Morpho butterfly



This is one of my favourite OOTAs, but sadly it doesn't scan as well as I would have liked! That's because it's another of the very mixed media pieces that I can't resist doing. This one is oil pastel / pencil / ink. The oil pastel is heavily diluted with turpentine to make something that feels a lot like watercolour but doesn't buckle the paper. Pencil over that goes on very dark and looks great - I used it for the shadows on the flowers. It wasn't quite dark enough for the black bits of the wings, though, so those are permanent marker. Looks wonderfully black in person, but scans a bit too matte in comparison with the other media.

The white and coppery markings in the black are also ink, this time those lovely Pentel rollerballs. Remember Milky Pens and then all the spinoffs? My aunt once gave me a giant pack of them, but once they ran out I couldn't afford more. And now I can't seem to find them anywhere - lots of other brands, but not the Pentel. And I only trust Pentel.

The angle of the butterfly looks a bit awkward, doesn't it? I copied this wholesale from a (not-online) photo - if it is your photo, drop me a note so I can credit you! These days I'm very particular about working only from my own photos, or stock from people with generous terms and conditions, or adapting things into unrecognisability. (Is that even a word? If it isn't, it should be.)