Nursury 1

I'm really not a fan of Peter Rabbit, but Mrs. Kreissl's baby Tristan is going to have a Peter Rabbit themed nursury, so I made this for him. Well, and for Mrs. Kreissl, since she's been one of the very coolest teachers and friends I've ever had. Don't worry Caleb! I haven't forgotten you! Tristan's birthday is supposed to come a bit sooner than yours though. That's why he got bumped forward a little bit.

Note on the work itself: This is the first time I have ever worked in this particular medium. While browsing for paper at my local art store a couple of weeks ago I came across this stuff called clayboard. It's a non-warping board coated with a fairly thin layer of a very smooth clay. Porous enough that you can paint on it, smooth enough you can draw on it, and you can also scratch away at the surface. Supposedly to bring up highlights or to remove mistakes. I scratched in the lines first, and then took watercolor over top. That way the watercolor would pool into the grooves leaving a darker color and a sharp line that had the ability to be very delicate. I could also then rub the surface wth a bit of steel wool, removing only the surface color and leaving the color in the lines. That helped to give it a fair bit of flexibility in the amount of detail and color that would build up. In any case it was a neat new way to draw, and one that I am looking forward to exploring in the future. What do you think Caleb? Does it have potential for your drawings?

Oh, and I should probably add the scale. This was done on a 5x7 piece of clayboard. So if you click on the image to enlarge it, you are actually seeing it larger than life.