Over the river and through the woods.

Wade in the Stillness
Collection of Memories
Stories to be told

~Kathryn Hansen~

Power to the Pebble (c) Kathryn Hansen 17x11.75 $1720

On the hiking trail in La Canada, CA with my dog Indie.

He drives everyone nuts!

Wilderness Retreet (c) Kathryn Hansen 9.5x20

Despite Chippy McNutters diminutive size, he was pretty much a big shot in his neck of the woods as he could gather up to 165 acorns on a good day. His furry friends however were starting to have concerns about Chippy's hoarding problem. Intervention seemed inevitable. Luckily for Chippy hibernation season was right around the corner so he was able to skirt the issue till Spring!

Burnish, baby burnish.

There are lots of different types of burnishing when it comes to colored pencils, my favorite with this piece has been tonal burnishing. I will do this several times in a section. I start by layering my colors on top of each other with a very light hand (this is achieved by holding the pencil further back), going in opposite directions with very consistent tiny circular strokes, and keeping my pencil point razor sharp while building up layers of color. I'm not heavy handed but I do apply more pressure with a Caran d'Ache Pablo white or light grey pencil towards the end, when I have my colors down. I will go back then and add a bit more color and burnish again with the white or light grey pencil...doing this several times until I have a beautiful rich glazed look. What happens with burnishing, is that it causes the color to fill up the entire tooth of the paper...making it very smooth looking. 

In the darker areas of this piece I will burnish with a dark blue and reddish Pablo. Just remember to gradually build up your dark colors as once they are down they are hard to erase.

Burnishing is one of the last steps in this whole process, which can be quite tedious at times, but the results create a sleek and fantastic finish!

Materials used: 
Stonehenge white paper (sheet)
Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils
Caran d'Ache Pablo pencils

To see more of my process and short videos check out my Instagram (kathrynhansendrawings) page here.