“Flowers”  in Prismacolor colored pencil on drafting film

This is a close up of some small flowers that were mixed in with roses that David gave me for Valentine’s Day last year.  I have heard cp artists rave about drafting film so I thought I’d give it a try.  If you are interested in giving it a go here are the specs:

Grafix Dura-lar, Matte film 2 sided .005  (I ordered it from Dick Blick)

• archival quality
• lays fat
• consistent color/clarity
• non-yellowing
• dimensionally stable
• non-tearing

The fim was opaque like but you could still see through it.  So,  I put a dark blue piece of paper behind the film because my pencils were very light colors.  The pencils went on the fim very smooth and just seem to glide with very little effort,  I really liked the feel.  The downside to this film for me is that I use a medium to heavy pressure and I found that I could only put down three layers.  I wondered  if I could  spray a workable fixative then maybe I could add more layers, but I was too afraid to try this time around.  But all and all I was very happy with the overall appearance….well…..I was until I painted the backside.  I thought since it was so pretty with the blue paper behind it, then I’d use the blue pencil on the back.  I was soooooooooooooo wrong.  It changed all the colors of the painting and made it look  too harsh and went from pink to purple.   But I guess we learn from our mistakes, right?  I am not going to give up on this film yet,  But next time, this will happen:  I will choose a base color and a light and a dark of the same family,  and  when I paint the back  will sort of match the front for example: pink flowers: light pink or a darker hue, green leaves: light green or darker hue of the same color family etc.  

Although, I didn’t really like how this turned out, It was still fun and a good practice.  If you are familiar in working with drafting film, your hints would be very much appreciated.