A client I completed a few portraits for over the years contacted me recently about something a little different. Her husband’s birthday is coming up in early June and he is an avid seaman. He loves to fish and take trips in the Irish Sea on his boat called ‘Black Pearl’. She had a few photographs of the speed boat and wanted me to create a collage of these images with one main photo in the centre. We also included her father’s boat in the top left corner of the drawing.
She originally wanted the drawing to be an A4 size, but I advised her to go a little bigger so I can capture more detail. The drawing is 25 x 35 cm in size. I used graphite pencil by Staedtler and Faber Castell, both matt graphite with a mixture of charcoal added to the lead of the pencil to remove some of the shine of graphite.
I mounted the drawing when finished. I use a fixative first on the drawing itself to fix the graphite powder onto the paper and give some protection. I post drawings in the mount with a clear plastic cover for protection.
The client was very happy with the finished drawing. There was a lot of detail in the individual drawings and it took more than a full week to complete.
