Stonehenge

Stonehenge

7" square Derwent Inktense on Stillman & Birn Delta journal

I love the rough paper of the Beta and Delta journals. It's heavy and strong with fine texture elements that give my stones a granulation effect when I wash out the Payne's Grey pencil work. I had a lot of fun varying the hues on the grass too because even in the photo, it looked greenest right at the base of the stones and had browner areas coming forward. 

I darkened the clouds in the original reference and deliberately played with them and the sky some, because of the square format. I had all this space leading up to the ancient sacred site and wanted to do an interesting sky. The photo reference by Dominic_M has a panoramic shape, very low and broad, but I expanded the sky knowing that's reality. If I was there all I'd need to do is look up.

So I had fun with this one today. I've got two more references by him that I really want to do something with. Might stick with the Inktense on all of them or branch out into another pastel for a Hawaiian waterfall scene. More to come!