CRIMSON VENETIAN CARNIVALE MASK IN COLOURED PENCIL AND INK ON DRAFTING FILM
I have long had a fascination with the mystical Venetian Carnivale Masks and, in particular, the Jesters, and thought it would be interesting to base a tutorial on some artwork from this subject. The reference photo for this art was taken by Simon Monk (flickr creative commons) and this was used with his kind permission.
In this particular tutorial, I will list the materials used and it is surprising that whilst the finished painting doesn't seem to have a huge range of colours, there are quite a large number of different colours used. The drafting film used is regular double matte drafting film. All the pencils used in this picture were Faber Castell Polychromos.
The first step is to complete a detailed drawing of the mask. I find it better at this stage, to use a lighter coloured pencil rather than a graphite pencil for your initial drawing on drafting film, as the graphite can make the other colours look grubby as the work progresses, unless most traces of the graphite are removed.
At this stage, the ink is added to the darker areas. I decided to leave the background plain black so all the focus is on the mask. Drafting film is less receptive to accepting any medium, if it has grease or dirt on it, so one hint is to have a matte board with the centre cut out and place that over your artwork while you work. This helps to prevent your fingertips from touching the drafting paper and also minimises smudging.
Pencils Used
Face, skin, nose:101 white, 132 light flesh, 130 dark flesh, 129 pink madder lake, 181 payne's grey, 230 cold grey I, 231 cold grey II, 232 cold grey III, 233 cold grey IV, 234 cold grey V
Start with filling in all the white areas on the face. Gradually add shadows by starting with the lightest of the cold greys and working up to the darker of the greys - these include the shadows and tones that form the nose. Use the flesh colours to add a little warmth to the shadows. The payne's grey was used to add subtle cracks into the porcelain of the face. When doing any whitework on the drafting film, it is easiest to have a black or dark piece of card behind the drafting film, so you can pick out the white areas that need to be done, allowing for more accuracy.
Lips:101 white, 199 black, 169 caput mortuum, 263 caput mortuum violet, 180 raw umber, 188 sanguine, 187 burnt ochre, 283 burnt sienna
I began with the white highlight on the bottom lips and then starting with the lighter colours gradually built up warmth and shadows on the upper lip and around the edges.
Mask:199 black, 181 payne's grey, 101 white, 186 terracotta, 180 raw umber, 233 cold grey IV, 187 burnt ochre, 169 caput mortuum, 263 caput mortuum violet, 192 indian red, 283 burnt sienna, 188 sanguine, 250 gold, 252 copper, 280 burnt umber
The mask over the eyes was the most enjoyable part of this picture for me. I initially drew in all the swirls in white, and then gradually built up the colours and shades around the swirls to really make them stand out and give them dimension. Small amounts of colour were added to the swirls to make them seem more natural. I then worked on the area just above the mask with the jewel accent and decoration around the forehead.
Collar and head piece:199 black, 263 caput mortuum violet, 158 deep cobalt green, 192 indian red, 219 deep scarlet red, 118 scarlet lake, 225 dark red, 117 vermilion, 217 middle cadmium red, 194 purple, 121 pale geranium lake, 283 burnt sienna, 130 dark flesh, 113 orange glaze, 126 permanent carmine, 184 ochre, 102 cream, 102 ivory, 169 caput cortuum, 18 terracotta, 131 medium flesh, 187 burnt ochre, 280 burnt umber, 181 payne's grey, 172 grey green, 233 cold grey IV, 177 walnut brown, 252 copper, 180 raw umber, 298 warm grey III, 250 gold
I began the collar and headpiece by drawing in all the white detail, and then followed using a range of the lighter, warmer reds to fill in the areas aroung the white swirls. Sadly, I didn't realise until later that there were finger marks on my scanner, so the finger marks you can see are not actually on the artwork. The next stage was the most time consuming. Working from lighter colours to darker colours, shading and toning was added. Shadows in the red areas were added in with some of the darker reds and browns. Higlights on the swirls were added in with copper, gold and walnut brown. Sometimes a little bit of ivory, cream and medium flesh were added also. The bells were done by adding white highlights first and then filling in the areas around the highlights with terracotta, burnt ochre, walnut brown, gold and black. The trim around each of the triangular sections of the collar and headpiece had quite a bit of teal and purple in it, so after adding any whites to the trim, the next stage was to draw in higlights with deep cobalt green and purple. The trim was then filled in using a variety of walnut brown, payne's grey, warm grey III and burnt ochre. Sometimes I would then lift colour back out using a pin, or knife, or even the prismacolour colourless blender which lifts pencil off the drafting film very effectively - this was to add tiny highlights to the trim.
Here is the finished artwork and you might be able to see that I have gone over the black areas to really make the black rich and solid. This subject was something a little different for me and was so much fun, that I would like to do a series of paintings dedicated to the Venetian Carnivale Masks. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and please don't hesitate to email me, or visit my blog if you have any questions regarding this tutorial or any of my other artworks.
