Gretzky Boys - Inspiration

This artwork I called Inspiration because of the black and white photo that inspired me with its stunning light effects and contrasts.

After returning home from Sunday Mass and sitting down to read the newspaper, a stunning photo of two children standing in the arms of their parents caught my eye. The lights and darks of it inspired the creative side of my imagination and I wondered how a sketch of this photo would translate on watercolour paper but done in pencil. Doing children is challenging because every stroke of the pencil will age a person, especially children.

I hurried to my art room to get a full size sheet of watercolour paper, brought it to the dining room table where the winter morning light was exceptional, and I started to sketch.

This image took many pencil strokes to complete, filling in all the indentations in the cold press paper to get the solid black shadows needed. I ended up giving this framed portrait to the grandparents of these boys - Mr & Mrs. Walter Gretzky.