Two Drawings for Taste of Tidewater Event

Quiet Campanula

10x10", colored pencil on paper, mounted to cradled board and varnished

June Poppy 

10x10", colored pencil on paper, mounted to cradled board and varnished

This morning, I delivered these two colored pencil drawings to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Falmouth. They will be displayed and available to purchase, as a part of the Taste of Tidewater fundraiser in August.

Each piece of artwork included in this invitational event measures 10x10 inches, and the artists are given a choice of either a 10x10 cradled board, or a 10x10 metal frame with mat (for two dimensional work). I decided to go with the cradled board, as I had been thinking about trying the method of mounting a drawing on paper to a board, and varnishing it. I have varnished many of my colored pencil drawings, but all of those were done on Pastelbord, which needs no other preparation before varnishing. The drawings on paper must be mounted to the cradled board with mounting film before varnishing. 

So, there were some new things happening.

First of all, drawing on the Stonehenge paper, rather than the sandpaper-like Ampersand Pastelbord I have grown accustomed to, kept me on my toes. I had to keep in mind that layering lighter colors on top of darker ones was not going to work. Also, the number of layers of colored pencil that I could actually apply was less than what I am used to with the textured surface.

Working with the mounting film had me feeling nervous. I used Grafix Double Tack  mounting film. It is basically a permanent, super sticky (on both sides) sheet of film. I had read, and heard, that doing a practice piece is a good idea, so as not to risk ruining the actual artwork. I opted instead to learn all I could about the process, read and reread, study instructional photos, and fret about it a bit. In the end, it worked just fine! After trimming, and a little sanding of the edges, I varnished them just like I do with the Pastelbord, and they look quite nice.

I like the look of the Ampersand Cradled Board. Originally, I thought I would paint the sides black, but the white looked great, so I just added a coat of white acrylic paint.