The painting is the activated by the use of a frontal light source, resulting in shadowed imagery of rich texture, subtle colors, and line. I also create small and large scale drawings. For the small drawings I use a photo process paper as a base and apply a color wash in a controlled manner which creates a frottage like surface. I then use a very fine black pencil to delineate the form and facial features. Colored pencil is then applied over the base wash and accentuates the inherent textural qualities of the wash.
Volume is created by shading and color selections establishes the emotional content of the drawing.
My large drawings utilize the same wash technique, but are executed on a hot press paper, and act in a confrontational manner because the scale is so dramatically altered. I then found that by combining the painting over the drawing, the resulting painting color was enriched by the drawings' ink wash. This also allowed me to integrate imagery, opening up a more narrative approach.