Looking Westward

Pencil, vine charcoal, and white-out. 11 x 15 Bristol.

This was made for my Dad on his birthday- February 24, 2010. Happy 57th Dad!

I went through quite a process for this one, and it all started while watching 'Open Range.' I was reminded of the time I saw this movie in the theater with my dad back in 2003, and how we experienced some good, quality, male bonding time. My dad has always enjoyed westerns, so I knew he would enjoy a piece like this.

Starting with a gestured conceptual drawing in my sketchbook, I decided to go with the very first theme and perspective- seeing what the cowboy would see. I thought back to the time Em and I were in Yellowstone, and how awesome the scenery was. Part of that landscape was a winding river amongst rocks and trees, so I wanted to include that landscape as well.
Being that my sketch was small, I scanned it and darkened the lines on the computer. I printed it into a larger format and traced it onto the bristol board, using the kitchen window.

The fun really began when I put the initial pencils to the paper and worked out how I might do a landscape in black and white. The brightest and lightest would have to be the sun, so using the eraser after charcoaling the gradient sky I used an eraser to bring out the sun. Using the eraser again I gestured out the undersides of the clouds where the sunlight would accent their features.

Honestly, this is the first major project I have done while using the full spectrum of pencil hardness and I learned quite a bit about what to do and what not to do. There was quite a bit of adjusting going on because of this. I especially enjoyed drawing out the trees in the background with the 5B, because of the strong contrast with the setting sun in the background. Finally, with the whole piece shaded I used white-out to accent the front of the horse and cowboy, where the sunlight would hit them.

If I were to to it over I would get better white-out (or a different material), and spend more time on the lettering of Psalm 25.

This was a fun and meaningful project, but not without challenges!