The Butcher and His Wife (Max and Celia)

This was done from a very small black and white picture of my grandparents, Max and Celia, in front of the meat market/grocery store they owned in Washington, D.C. in the 40's-50's.  I have wanted to do this picture for a long time.  The first decision to make was whether to correct the spelling of my maiden name which actually ends in an "h" not a "k".  The sign maker got it wrong and gave them a discount instead of redoing it.  I decided it had to be kept a "k".  I did this on a piece of sand Canson Mi-Tientes board.  I specifically chose this more highly textured surface to avoid getting too terribly detailed with this drawing.  I know me, smooth paper would have allowed for too many details that I just didn't have in the reference I was working from.  It would have made me a crazy woman!  It's 14 x 8 inches.  I thought I wanted to go with a sepia look and completed the whole thing initially using only light umber, dark umber, cream and eggshell colored pencils.  Although they were much older by the time I was born and how I remember them, I feel really content that I captured the essence of them.  They have both been gone more than 30 years and I found myself missing them all over again as I looked down at them.  When I initially completed it, I thought it had turned out just fine technically, but not very lively.  Well, I decided it needed some color.  If they could add color to sepia photos, which used to be a very common practice, I could add color to my sepia drawing, right?  Out came the PanPastels. They went very nicely right over the colored pencil, even in areas where I had burnished somewhat, which was a happy surprise.  The end result is very different, but I think I like it.

 

Max and Celia

Colored Pencil and PanPastel on Mi-Tientes board

14 x 8 inches