5-Minute Sketch and a Few More Hours

In this practice effort, I surprised myself with being able to capture the 'bones' of the source image in this 5-minute sketch with my Muji pen. 

Two to three hours later, the bones were fleshed out (a cute turn of phrase, don't you think?).  The two masked constructed beings are supposed to have head covers of burlap.  To suggest that, lines were used to simulate the fabric and its areas of dark and light.

After finishing the three figures, the background was completely white and didn't look right.  So, I added marsh grasses behind the figures.  They ended up competing with them.  So a light wash of tan was added to the grasses, to tone them down, but that didn't help. 

Next, an Inktense pencil was used to create a black border around the three subjects while allowing for a slight aura of white.  Even with this change, the remaining grasses were still competing for attention.  So those too were covered -- this time with charcoal grey.  This solution worked far better, but still looked unfinished.  The next idea was to use black Posca pens to unify the background with dots.  I started with small dots around the subjects-- that wasn't enough.  So they were added all over.  

I like how it came out.  What I'm most intrigued with is the contrast between those dots and the lines used to suggest burlap in the head covers.  Plus, they come across having very different textures.  

The specific things I like about this practice piece is the sense of story going on, the movement suggested by the central figure's hand, and the depth that comes through by the dark framing the figures that subtly shifts through a gradation to lighter areas along the edges of the image.  

An additional lesson from this effort is that I took some risks that didn't work out.  But through continuing to work, then assess, make changes, then reassess, etc., the changes led to a result that is far better and was totally unexpected.  

When you work, do you take risks?  Do you have to be in a certain frame of mind to take risks?  Have taking risks resulted in improvements to pieces you were working on?