Nightstalker

Here is the black leopard, a nocturnal hunter with a wide range of habitats. Here, one is hunting in the moonlit rainforests of southern Asia (if you can imagine moonlight actually getting to the ground in a rainforest). The black, or melanistic, leopard is just a color variation of the "regular" leopard. It is not completely black, as you can usually see the spots.

This drawing was quite a challenge for me, but I enjoyed it. Except for the experiments of my previous posts on white charcoal, I've never used black paper and white charcoal before. It is a whole new experience drawing highlights instead of shadows. It was fun, too, trying to figure out where all the shadows of the leaves would lie, especially without a physical model to go by.

I used the paper I was complaining about before. I really don't like the patterned tooth, but I was able to work with it reasonably well, especially for the tree trunks. I still would have preferred smoother paper for the leaves, as you can still see some texture to them. The fur worked pretty well. I bought a couple sheets of Strathmore Artagain black paper to try out. It is recycled paper but is much smoother than this charcoal paper.

I have prints available for this piece, and I'll be selling the original unframed (12"x18").