Original artwork description:

On the surface of things, this is a drawing taken from a vintage Halloween photograph in my collection. It depicts a young girl in a clown costume proudly sitting next to her pumpkin. I'm guessing the time frame is circa 1960 looking at the original photo stock and paper.

For me though, it represents a battle, firstly with a new medium for me, coloured pencils. Secondly, in fixing things gone wrong. I was really pleased with the drawing once I'd completed it, however, in the final finishing stages something went wrong with the varnishing and the drawing was almost ruined.

I tried several things to clean up the mistake until I took one final drastic step. I didn't know if it would work, but I had to try. I applied turps to remove the mess that had formed on the photo, obscuring the original drawing. It worked and the drawing was saved, and is presented here for you.

The drawing is made with Polychromos colour pencils on Bristol Board, with matt varnish over the top. It is supplied ready to frame in a 20cm x 25cm mount.

Materials used:

Bristol Board, Polychromos coloured pencils, graphite, ink

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• Halloween