Stonehenge

Since I started drawing 4 years ago, my goal had been to draw things as realistically as possible.  To eliminate paper texture, shading, and any hint of a handmade process.  This drawing is a departure from that philosophy.  While maintaining a high level of realism (for some, photorealism), I tried to display this piece as not just a copy of a photo, but a drawing.  Instead of blending the graphite into the paper, something I have always done, this drawing was completed almost entirely with pencil strokes (very little erasing).  Tiny 0.3mm mechanical pencils were replaced with dulled pencils.  Why?  Because a technical work is not necessarily a work of art.  Art involves style and personality; a copy of a photo, while impressive, fails to completely satisfy this (in my opinion).  While my past few years in photorealism have been fun, I believe that my style is starting to evolve into something more loose and free.

The drawing itself is based off this reference photo:
www.morguefile.com/archive/dis…

The original picture has a blank, gradiented sky, something which I found very bland.  I decided to instead use the sky from a picture I took in Canada this summer.  The sky is an essential component of a landscape like this one, and I think the contrasted, almost troubling sky gives the piece much more depth.
scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hp…

SIZE
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10 x 18"

TIME
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45 hours

MATERIALS
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-Fabriano Artistico hot-press watercolor paper
-Tombow Mono pencil set
-Papermate Tuff Stuff eraser stick
-Chamois (for light touch-ups)

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Thanks for viewing.