Victoria Willcocks
With formal training in art, photography, and theatre studies and a love of the countryside, Victoria has created some amazing images in various media, but she is now a master of her favourite media, colour pencil.
The training and experience in the photographic world, gave Victoria her understanding of colour, depth of field and composition. Whilst the precise marks that can be produced whilst using colour pencil, gives her the capability of producing the detail need in creating her amazing photorealistic images. Whilst drawing a photorealistic image is a skill in itself, Victoria realises that her drawn images need aspects which sets them apart from just having a photograph instead. Whilst working on commissions Victoria also has collections of work which are all based on the animal kingdom. To see what is currently on drawing board, follow Victoria on her Facebook or Instagram page.
" My father always asks, How do you do it? So Dad, this is how;
"The style of work that I produce is called Hyperrealism, which is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. I use Swiss made Caran D'Ache Pablo coloured pencils because of their depth of colour and because they are a harder core of colour, so they stay sharper for longer. Even the black and white images are drawn with coloured pencil. The paper I love to work on is Bockingford Watercolour, Hot Pressed Paper which is smooth with still a little bit of texture, which is very useful for producing the texture of animal noses. Each drawing is based around several images of the given animal that I am working on at the time. The first step is work out on small paper the look of the finished peace with a rough sketch. Then I move on to the larger paper and then the first step is to work on the structure of the animal, the shapes that make the head, shoulders, eyes etc, this is the time to make sure that all the proportions are correct. once the base animal sketch is down on paper I then start on the details, building up layers of colour. Each layer is made up of thousands and thousands of tiny strokes of the pencil. The trick to this is a very good pencil sharpener, as you need a very sharp point at all times to get the detail needed. Starting with the outer areas of the animal, like the shoulders, and the lightest shades and then working all the way to the blackest areas to help give it that extra punch, depth and form. Some areas of bare paper is left for the areas of the white. Some times I use a white pen to work extra details in to the subject for example extra fine whiskers and fur details. I find that if I start with the less interesting areas I get a stronger image, for example I work from the main body up the neck, perhaps working on the ears next, if the animal has horns these may be the next challenge, then on to the face, nose, mouth and I always leave the eyes to last. They are the best bit of the drawing the areas of work which bring it to life.The areas I have to work hardest on first which help towards making sure that when I add the eyes the story is complete, with that final flash of white light in the animals eyes which bring it to life. I hope you enjoy my work as much I love drawing." Victoria
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