A Madonna and Child attempt

anthemsweet

I did a Madonna and Child drawing this week--light watercolor wash underneath colored pencils. The Mary turned out much younger looking than I intended, so I'm going to try again next week. I think I'll put a darker washes underneath so there is less need for building up many layers of colored pencil. I want to make something I feel good about having prints made of for Christmas cards or whatever.

lmrush

Beautiful-I love the magic that happened in the texture of the blue

anthemsweet

@lmrush Thank you! That blue includes a lot layers!

smceccarelli

Very charming, delicate image. I actually like the virgin-child look of the Madonna...

Lydia M

I think it's beautiful. Mary was a young teenager when Jesus was born so her youthful face works.

Rich Green

@anthemsweet I personally would not change a thing. I think this is really beautiful.

Matt Baldwin

It's a really nicely balanced image. There are areas that are busy and areas for the eye to rest. I agree with other comments here, I think Mary has turned out really well and don't think she looks too young.

anthemsweet

I appreciate everyone's input. It's very encouraging. In a way, I do like my very young Mary--I think she looks sweet-- but to me she looks about eleven, and I want her to look about 15. So I'm going to try again. I felt like I figured out better ways of doing it as I went along, and I'd like to try them. I know an artist, an accomplished painter and gallery artist, who always makes two of every painting he does, one of them pushing himself to be a bit experimental and possibly failing, one of them safer but probably not giving himself as much of a chance to really grow a lot. This isn't quite the same thing, but I feel like doing this again will give me a chance to grow in very specific ways, but I probably wouldn't be motivated to do it again if I weren't uncomfortable with the Mary. I plan to post again by next weekend, so we'll see.....

anthemsweet

@smceccarelli Thank you! I replied in fuller comment below, but couldn't figure out how to tag everyone...

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@Lydia-M Thank you! I replied in fuller comment above, but couldn't figure out how to tag everyone...

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@Rich-Green Thank you! I replied in fuller comment above, but couldn't figure out how to tag everyone...

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@Matt-Baldwin Thank you! I replied in fuller comment above, but couldn't figure out how to tag everyone...