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Start to Finish 

25/11/2012

2 Comments

 
Away from the mostly digital work I do there is nothing I enjoy more than picking up pen and paper and working on something I will do purely for myself, something that is driven by the simple need to draw - drawing as a relaxing and (yes) therapeutic activity.

A few weeks back I started mulling over the theme of the mother and child - a theme repeated oh so often in religious as well as secular art. So I played around with a couple of sketches until I had a working drawing I could use to take off with. When it came to putting in a background it just had to be a Maltese themed landscape - and it was then I hit upon the Gozo Citadel (ic-Cittadella in Maltese) as possibly the ideal backdrop.

I have always loved the view of this ancient redoubt sitting atop its rounded hilltop as you are coming down the road from Zebbug so I chose that particular angle . The rest of the landscape I left as simplified as possible.  

By my normally very slow working rate this one was completed pretty fast... I started the pencil sketch on 3rd November and a day later started working with ink. I completed this on the 25th November - less than a month. Good job I never got the Sistine Chapel commission.  

I used Faber Castell TGI-S technical pens with nibs ranging from 0.13 to 0.35 and Pelikan permanent inks in various colors: black (naturally), vermillion, cobalt blue, yellow, green, sepia and burnt sienna. I rounded off with a light dusting of Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils.

I took shots of the drawing as it developed and here they are...
The Citadel Madonna - a blow-by-blow account!
Picture
    Working drawing. Baby Jesus needs to be altered...
Picture
...and off we go. Work in progress.
Picture
  Introducing cobalt, vermilion and burnt sienna inks...
Picture
Sketching in a background with a couple of pics for reference
Picture
Giving the background wall, fields and citadel some color: using green, cobalt, yellow, burnt sienna and sepia
Picture
Almost done with the ink...now a few touches with colored pencils...
Picture
                     ...and I reckon "The Citadel Madonna" is ready!
Picture
           Madonna face detail
Picture
            Citadel detail
2 Comments
jcs
18/11/2012 11:18:53 pm

What a strange and in my opinion bizarre change in the child. So, I figure you're getting away from ze traditional image but still thinking of a Mdina silhouette - looking forward to see what you come-up-with after such a change.

Reply
Anne Zammit
26/11/2012 04:43:23 am

Your "light dusting" of polychromos pencils at the end has really lifted it ~ az

Reply



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