I wasn’t sure how to approach this drawing, so spent a while researching monochrome drawings completed by other OCA students as well as practising artists. Not wanting to go for the obvious blacks and whites, it took me a while to get my head round how to achieve monochrome effect with colours while effectively depicting different tones and shadows. Eventually, I thought I should just get on with it and be brave. In the top image I went for an idea of working around the colour orange with the colours which are also contained in the colour orange, yellow and red. I used a range of media, fine line pen, soft pastel and felt pen. I found it quite difficult to get a coherent feeling to the drawing, layering different media to pick out the lighter and darker tones. So, I wondered if using just orange colours in a range of media would work better. I used watercolour, fine line pen and oil pastel, trying to define the different tones with the depth of colour produced by the different media. I also tried out a neon orange marker for the lighter tones on the left hand apple, I wasn’t keen on it so didn’t use it elsewhere. I feel leaving the lightest areas white worked better.
Ruth Beech - Mindful Movement, Meditation and Art 