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WORKING THE BACKGROUND

I will break this topic into sections :    1/ General Points       2/ Backgrounds in pure Dry Point pencil,  

 GENERAL POINTS

The background of an artwork needs to sit gently, half out of sight, and provide an appearance of what is known as aerial perspective - distance.  It throws the subject into prominence and gives some illusion of three dimensions to the picture. For this reason we need the colours to be weaker than the rest of the picture, or the definition less focused, so that out main subject stands forward and separate from the backcloth .    It is usually best to work the background first with a low level of colour so that any foreground subjects can be worked over the top for a crisp edge, but this is by no means the only way of working.

I prefer to work a background as either a watercolour pencil wash or as dry watercolour pencil blended into place.  But then, I come to Coloured Pencils from painting in Watercolours, so that is a natural way for me to approach the problem !

BACKGROUNDS IN PURE DRY POINT PENCIL

Have a look at these work in progress images from Brandy Perez.  They show a superb artist dealing with the problem of an out of focus, but strongly coloured, background.  This blended method is ideal for larger pictures.

You can see how Brandy sets out a general underpainting of her main subject ( a Longhorn ) and a deliberately patterned background - like a Paisley wallpaper.  

In view 2 she has applied a blending coat over the top so that the pattern fades away into a general out-of-focus area of colour. This darkens towards the edge of the picture.

In view 3 she starts to apply the light colours to provide a base for the detail on the animal.

Finally 4, you can enjoy the detail of the final piece.  Brandy uses a lot of pencil in her artwork.

This image is using Prismacolor on  Colorfix paper which has a sanded surface and will hold a lot of material

Brandy’s example, above, is quite a large picture ( 16 inches x 20 inches ) so the grain of the surface, whilst always important, is not so critical as when you are working a small picture.  In that case a smooth surface is essential.  My recommendation is that you use a print making paper like Stonehenge, Canaletto or a smooth HP watercolour paper like Fabriano 5 for small images where a fine background is required.  The samples below are all in the range of 3 inches x 2 inches.

First look at the difference between using a piece of plain white card (A)  and a piece of Stonehenge (B)

- these original images are about the same size - 3 inches wide.

You can see that even though a layer of white CP has been put down first in both samples to try to lighten and smooth the later blues, the grain of the card at (A) will make it impossible to get really smooth colour from the pencil point, no matter how careful we are to put colour down with a light touch.  Certainly the second example (B) is better and you can see how the first white layer modifies the darker blue ( shown at the top ).

HOWEVER there are faster and better ways of putting down light smooth coverings of colour.

One of these has already been shown in the item on Skies.  This used a piece of white felt, using a palette of strong colour laid down on a separate piece of cold pressed watercolour paper.  Cold pressed paper is used to enable a strong layer of colour to be removed from the pencil point and form a dense pool of pigment.

The second method is also an excellent one.

This relies on taking a powder from the pencil tip with the blade of a knife.   The blade should be sharp and held at right angles to the long pigment strip so that colour is scraped off rather than sliced from the point.

You should get a collection of fine powder - or fine particles - it will depend on the softness of the pencil you are using

This item is also covered briefly in the earlier Topic  ‘Managing Pigment’

Take a cheap fairly stiff brush  - I used an cheap art brush that had originally been sold for acrylic or oils - and gently move and press the colour into the paper surface with a scrubbing motion.

I use an old clean brush, because it is not easy to clean it again afterwards.  I keep one that has been used for blue to re-use later for other pictures.

Don’t use too coarse a brush or you may find that the results are not as smooth as shown here

I have a pack of cheap brushes bought from a discount store, they cost under 20p each.  If they have long bristles, cut them down shorter and give the end a flat look - straight across, just as you would use a stencil brush.   The flat style brushes work well up to an edge.  I do know that someone has successfully tried this technique with a piece of natural sponge.

It is possible to remove excess colour from a good paper with a battery eraser and this has been done in both of the examples shown to the right.  

The first example is using the relatively soft

Caran d’Ache Pablo pencils.  

The second is using the much harder Staedtler karat watercolour pencils.  

You can see they both work well.

Once again, the samples are approx 3 inches wide and you can see the greatly improved result.

This brushed powder technique offers a wide range of options for backgrounds using an entirely dry process.

You can also use felt or a soft fabric to rub in the powder though this may not give you an accurate edge

IF YOU USE EITHER OF THESE METHODS for your backgrounds,

It is better to apply the background colour FIRST and add the rest of the picture detail LATER,

as you will not easily get an accurate edge with either the ‘rubbed’ or brushed’ methods.

Clean off the edges (where you cannot work over the background colour) with a battery eraser, and if necessary cut a piece of card to use as a shield to protect the background edge from accidental removal.

For real precision, use the  Frisket film used for airbrushing. This is an ideal edge protection.

The frisket  comes in rolls, is low tack, cuts easily with scissors of sharp knife, and is not too expensive  

See Artifolk for details of the film and the Stabilo white or graphite pencil for marking out

I give more details below on using this film method

FOR BACKGROUNDS USING WATERCOLOUR PENCILS ( Aquarelles )

there are several articles on this site which detail methods for a wet process and you can find these on the following pages :   Aquarelle Pencil Techniques - Underpainting.

                           And   The Step by Step introduction pages 1 and 2

Using Aquarelles is the simplest method for backgrounds, but as it relies of you having an ability with watercolour washes, many artists may prefer to stay with a dry ( and erasable ) method.

A further method can also be used and that relies on making up a dissolved liquid from the pigment and then spraying it on to the surface with an air spray.  See the Topic ‘Managing Pigment’ for more information

USING FRISKET FILM FOR PROTECTING THE SUBJECT

When working a rubbed or brushed in background

Low Tac Plastic Frisket film is used for protecting the working surface during airbrushing and can also be used in a similar way when applying a powder layer of pigment in CP work.  I have found that whilst it will work in protecting an edge when brushing pigment into the working surface, the low tac nature of the film tends to lift away from the surface if the brush is moved against the edge - it is better to brush outwards from the film on to the paper.

A more satisfactory method is to use a rubbed in technique.  For this, we scrape a stock of pigment on to the work surface in the colours required, and then rub in the powder using an appropriate soft material.  I have heard of people using natural sponge, but I have used white felt.  I use white to ensure that I can re-use the felt later for another picture, but being white, I can see the patches used for the ‘wrong’ colours and avoid applying(say) red to the middle of a blue sky !

The example shown is a small ATC sized picture  ( 3.5 ins by 2.5 inches ) of a white nanny goat.

A plastic frisket was marked out  with CP from the original picture and then cut out carefully using a scalpel knife.

The subject was removed from the sheet of film and the backing paper taken away leaving just the plastic goat. This was applied to the paper.

Powdered pigment was then applied by scraping from the pencils ( Polychromos in this case - on to white Stonehenge )

This was carefully rubbed in to the paper with the felt using outward strokes pressing the film down as I went to keep it in position.  The Film can then be removed and the background more detailed and darkened where required.

The subject ( Goat ) can then be completed with a few light strokes.  This image has yet to be finished off, but has been left so that you can see how the  rubbed in area to the right  compares with the area to the left which has had further CP treatment.

Original picture of Nanny Goat & Kid                                        cut out frisket film                     in position on paper with pigment

Rubbed in pigment with added dry point pencil colour

Finished ATC image  3.5 ins x 2.5 ins

The white of the goat is the white of the paper

GENERAL C.P. TECHNIQUES

SHARPENING PENCILS  :   Completing BACKGROUNDS in CP  :  MATCHING COLOURS when you don’t have the exact shade in your box  :  The Picture COMPOSITION - important points to bear in mind whatever the medium  :

The use of COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS to darken  :   Notes on working CP on COLOURED PAPER :

and STILL LIFE DRAWING notes