Leek Faux Mosaic

After that last post where I pretty much had a nervous breakdown over trying to do that digital colored pencil piece, I had to shift gears completely and not only go back to real colored pencils, but had to also not do a children's book piece. So I did food, but again, something completely different.

"Leek" - faux mosaic  8" x 10"

Polychromo colored pencils on Strathmore 500 illustration board

I also went back to illustration board, which is what I learned on in art school. We used it for everything. Although back then it was Crescent 300. I still love illustration board the best for everything - watercolor, gouache, ink, pencils - but you can't see through it on a light box. Which is why I use paper a lot now.

The grout is the same color all the way through, but looks so much darker against the white. 

Here's how it started ~

I had intended to do more 'in progress' scans, but you know how it goes sometimes. Basically, I sketched out the leek, broke it up into little pieces and drew in some grout, then colored in the tiles. Then I came back over the grout again with a grey, then over the whole piece with white to pull it together.

It was pretty fussy, but I was determined to finish it. I was inspired by classic Roman mosaics where they used these little small squares for the whole piece. I'd like to do some more of these, and experiment with different sizes and shapes of 'tiles'.

In between grouting faux tiles, I've been playing nurse to my kitty Saachi, who had the rest of his rotten teeth pulled, and also got shaved bald to get rid of all his badly matted fur. Poor kitty - I've never had a cat with fur like his, its just impossible to comb out. This was pretty dramatic, but it will grow in better, and I am armed with a good assortment of different sized combs to keep him cleaned up this time. Hopefully.

Before ~

After ~

Sigh. He's doing well, and gumming his food now. We have baby food, all kinds of wet food, and are doing dry food with just a bit of water on it to soften it. And lots of TLC of course.