WIP - Clouded Leopards

I just realized I haven't written in a while. Not entirely my fault, I haven't had a lot to write about between a minor surgery and almost slicing my thumb off the other day (good news - I can still draw!). Anyway, since the completion of the coral reef I decided to have another large drawing going. I've had this zebra drawing in planning stage for a while. Unfortunately, I just finished the layout so there's not much to show.

However, I have a slightly smaller drawing going of a family of clouded leopards. This photo is the start of the mother, using tinted charcoal. I'm really getting the hang of the tinted charcoal, learning how to take the few colors to make a wider range of colors and values. It's getting exciting!

Wistful

In a previous post, I introduced Derwent's Tinted Charcoal. I used burnt orange, peat, mountain blue (background), forest pine and sand (eyes), natural, and the three shades of black/gray to create this tiger. Sumatran tigers like this one are the second most endangered tiger subspecies, with fewer than 500 individuals left in the wild. Because of their habitat in the rainforests of Sumatra, they have developed a small size for moving between trees and webbed toes for faster swimming. Their mane is typically larger than other tigers, with some even sporting a full beard below the chin. I will donate a portion of my profits to tiger conservation at Save the Tiger Fund.

Prints and greeting cards are available through Fine Art America, or the original (unframed) is available here:

Greeting Cards

Fine Art America has started offering greeting cards, so I have set up a few of my works as cards. Unfortunately, I can't just link to all the cards, so you have to check each print separately. Cards are available for most of my work except those I do limited editions of.

They Can't All Be Your Best

The definition of "best" implies that there some things that aren't the best. I certainly have my own opinions about which of my drawings I think are my best, and several that I actually despise. It's all part of the learning process, I guess. But there are those times when you think you're in a groove and have a wonderful idea, but the execution just comes out shoddy. Imagine my disappointment when my latest great idea, a baby chimp sitting in the grass (based on some photos I took last year), ended up looking like a children's book illustration (not that children's book illustrations are bad, it's just not what I was going for). This drawing isn't finished (in the full drawing, he's holding a little flower), and I waffle between wanting to see how it ends up and wanting to throw it away. So chances are it'll end up in my storage box unfinished.

What I'd like to share about this piece, though, is that I used my new tinted charcoal pencils. The pink of the skin and the greens of the grass are wonderful colors. I was able to add different shades of regular black charcoal on the pink to get a variation of value. I'm still learning how to blend them to make new colors - it hasn't worked very well so far.

You can't win them all, just take it as a learning experience and move on.

Drawing Day 2009

Yesterday was Drawing Day, an attempt to get as many drawings done and put online in one day as possible. Each person may only submit one drawing, and it must have been created on Drawing Day (not before). I submitted mine to RedBubble.

Since I was out of town most of the day, I put together a quick sketch of the baby orangutan at the zoo. I love her messy hair! I'd like to do a more formal drawing of her at some point. I used sepia and sanguine Conte pencils, dark sepia Cretacolor pencil, and a touch of pink tinted charcoal around the mouth. I blended with a tortillon to smooth it all out. Happy Drawing Day!

Underwater Rainbow

It's been 13 months in the making, and I have finally finished the coral reef. The last step was the water. I used two colors, indigo and true blue, and used the blender like there's no tomorrow. I added sun rays with white.

Altogether, I included two dozen species using 50 different colors. It's been a long 13 months, but I am quite happy with the result. Will I do it again, such a large drawing in colored pencil? I'm not sure. But this was quite the learning experience.

I am going to have this drawing professionally scanned so I can offer large sizes of prints. In the meantime, the original (30"x15") is available:

It's Charcoal - But in COLOR

A few months ago I discovered an amazing new product from Derwent. They have taken charcoal and mixed it with various clays to produce tinted charcoal. I've tested them out on drawing paper to show the different colors. Most of the colors are very subtle greens, browns and blues.

They definitely have the feel of charcoal, and they blend well. I'm testing out making new colors by layering and blending the existing ones, and it seems to work pretty well. I do wonder how they compare to pastel pencils, as I have not tried those before.

Look forward to some colored works from me in the near future. I already have plans for one drawing and can't wait to get to it (I'll give a hint - it's another primate).