Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

I’m glad to report that the new carpet has been laid and our house is slowly returning to normal – I today I can finally step back inside my studio!

After painting for the last few pieces, I wanted to get my hand back into drawing mode so I started this Rhodesian Ridgeback as a quick experiment see how graphite works on drafting film.  Drafting film is my favourite support for colour pencil work, but I have never tried it for graphite until now (very few artists use it, although I have found one artist who has been using it as a support for thirty odd years).

Photographing it proved very difficult, but I have finally managed to get a semi-reasonable digital image of this one by scanning it, it is still a work in progress, so not yet completed. Film is a really nice surface to work on, and it is more like painting in graphite and charcoal than drawing that is both good and bad, good because it allows very soft transitions of tone, bad because it is easy to lift off and smudge.

I normally only use charcoal for getting my darkest darks in my graphite work, but I found myself leaning more and more towards the charcoal with this one, and whats more, really enjoying ‘painting’ with it using a variety of tools such as chamois, tissue, cotton buds (q-tips), a watercolour brush and a make-up sponge.

Probably the best thing about drafting film though, is the ability to put a different colour paper behind the drawing.  I used a cream parchment paper, and although it dosn’t show properly in the scan (think marbled/mottled cream rather than solid), the effect it gives in real life is really interesting, and something I am looking forward to experimenting a bit more with.

The reference photo was one of my own, and the drawing is approximately A4 in size and when it is finished I will probably offer prints of it at RedBubble.

The first image shows the drawing with the cream backing:

The second image shows the drawing with a white background:

I’d love to know your opinion on my experiment, and if you use drafting film for graphite and charcoal work, or would like a charcoal pet portrait of your own Rhodesian Ridgeback, I’d love to chat;)

Where has this year gone? I can’t believe that it is nearly Christmas already and I am definitely not going to look at the last date that I updated this blog, so instead I will just share my latest piece, a pure pastel pet portrait painting on velour paper of a gorgeous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

This is the first time that I have used the German made Hahnemuhle velour pastel paper and I will definitely be using it again, it creates an incredible softness to the artwork that is particularly suited to animal portraiture.

This Cavalier King Charles Spaniel pet portrait features on dog breed merchandise such as stationery, prints, greeting cards, tote bags and more.

Michelle

This is my latest commission, a graphite portrait of a gorgeous black Labrador Retriever. Hasn’t she got the sweetest looking face? I’m very pleased with how this turned out although getting good digital images of graphite work is near on impossible!

This scanned image is about the closest I can get to the original, although alot of the delicate shading in the original is not evident, particularly in the highlighted areas.

Labrador Breed Information

Labrador Retrievers are a loving, affectionate, intelligent breed that is one of the most popular dog breeds in Australia. Highly intelligent, loyal, willing, good natured and excellent with children they are ideal companions for families. Labradors are easily trained and need to be treated as one of the family, otherwise like many breeds they can become destructive. Labradors are medium sized energetic dogs that need a fair bit of excercise. Their smooth short haired coat, which can be black, yellow or chocolate in colour, is easy to groom and they should be bathed only when necesary. They have a life expectancy of about 10-12 years

Labradors originated in New Foundland where they were originally known as St John Dogs or the Lesser New Foundland (Newfoundland’s are another breed of dog). Labrador is a peninsular in north-eastern North America situated between Hudson Bay, the Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Labradors were originally developed to assist the fishermen in towing in nets as well as working in the snow and ice. These dogs were taken to England where they were bred as gun dogs and retrievers. Labs are easily trained and their intelligence and lovely disposition makes them very suitable for work as guide, service and customs dogs.

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Michelle