This is Lesson 6, drawing with color.
Drawing with color is probably the most complicated thing that you can do
within the range of activities we call drawing.
Drawing with tone is quite difficult.
Drawing with line is pretty simple.
Drawing with color, you get a lot of moving parts and
things can easily go wrong.
Now, to stop them going wrong, the starting point for most people
is to work with a pencil so you can get a framework to drop the color into.
In this drawing, a drawing by John Raskin of an eagle's head,
I think you can see, very clearly, he starts with a pencil outline.
He draws the shape around the head, the outline.
Then, I bet he puts in the eye, attaches the end of the beak to the eye
with a very delicate line that just sweeps through the center of the head.
Then finally, he does the easy bit, maps out where the feathers are.
Now, once that drawing is there, the tool changes, it's a brush.
And with the brush,
Ruskin brings a life to the drawing that a line during will never have.
He brings actual color.
He brings volume.
He makes the feathers look fluffy.
He makes the eye look glossy.
He makes the beak look hard.
And that is what color can bring into a drawing.
It brings extra detail, it fleshes it out.
If a line drawing is the skeleton,
the color drawing is the fully clothed, fleshed out image.
So, my guess is he started with brown feathers and
put on a very light brown wash that he then put a darker brown into
to give the feathers a three-dimensional look.
So, the color goes across the whole, and
then comes back into the tip, putting on darker underedges to the feathers.
After that, Rustin probably painted the beak.
He put on very, very fine tones.
A beautiful pink at the opening, a blue gray at the end, and
then this kind of bone color in the middle.
To finish this drawing he probably put a golden eye in with very,
very transparent color very, very lightly.
And then finally darkened the whole outer image to make the head look more dramatic.
To contrast the darkness of the background to the shapes of the head.
So, when color is put into a drawing, the most important thing to remember is,
it should be done sparingly, it should be done carefully, and in layers.