Thursday, March 18, 2010

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

WIP - Elephants - Al....most....There....

African elephant family charcoal drawing in progress
It's almost there! I've been spending a lot of time on the foreground, particularly the water. It's slow going, but it's coming together. All that's left is the strip along the bottom and some touching up. (The black part at the very bottom of the photo is the pencil tray on the easel.) For the water, I've been using mostly the 6B charcoal pencil and tortillon, followed by the chamois and kneaded eraser for smoothing and lifting highlights, then finally the white charcoal for the foam and highlights brighter than the gray matboard. My next post should be the completed drawing!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Before the Hunt

Mexican wolves white charcoal drawing on black paper
Here is the final version of the Mexican wolves, white charcoal on black Strathmore Artagain paper. Once the elephants are done (back to that one this weekend), I will be finished with the drawing part of getting ready for my exhibit this summer. All that will be left is a few more frames.

Prints of this drawing are available.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

New WIP - Mexican Wolves

Occasionally I work on more than one drawing at once, although I have found I prefer to devote all my energy to one piece at a time before moving on. In this case, I have been working on the elephants for a couple weeks and have reached the point where I'm not sure how to continue. So while I let it sit in the back of my mind and figure it out subconsciously (hopefully), I started another drawing. I really want to improve my ability with white charcoal, and this one will be the most complicated one I've done so far with three individuals and hopefully more depth.

Mexican wolves white charcoal pencil drawing in progress
I don't have a lot of reference photos of wolves, mostly because the wolves at the zoo nearby are very elusive and always either hiding or running too fast for my camera when I visit. However, I did find three photos that I am combining into this drawing. These are not the typical gray wolf, but rather a subspecies called the Mexican wolf which are usually thinner than their more northern relatives. So hopefully this will turn out well!

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

WIP - Elephants - Slowing Down a Bit

African elephants charcoal drawing in progress
The top two-thirds or so of this drawing is essentially done at this point (something I decided to do before continuing with the last elephant), but now I'm going to slow down a bit to make sure I get the water part right. I think the bottom elephant still needs some work on the head, and then I'll work on getting texture in the water and a few foreground plants. The color is a little off in this photograph, but I'm sure you get the idea.