Found a great photograph with wonderful contrast. I decided to work on a portrait of a tiger with the sun shining from one side, casting strong shadows on the other. Have worked with several washes of diluted black ink to create the strong shadows.
This is a small piece, only 5 x 7 inches.
The original (reference) photograph was taken in a zoo, and the ‘ledge’ where the leopard was laying was clearly made out of concrete / stucco. I decided to give it a more natural stone look, and this is the end result.
The leopard itself is pretty much finished (needs whiskers!). now I move on to developing the rocky ledge on which it is laying. Stay tuned!
Have been working a little bit on this every day, but sometimes reality calls and house chores becon. Regardless, I am happy with the progress I’m making. The fur in the main body of the leopard is much longer and fluffier than that on the legs and head.
It’s always a challenge to get the fur to ‘read’ as reall. It’s important to get the direction right, as well as the texture and length of the fur. Here is the latest update as of today.
Here is the promised update on the latest piece. It is of a leopard, resting on a rocky ledge.
Still working on the background, with some addtional scratching to be done after one final (I think) ink wash.
Game 7 of the NBA Finals tomorrow evening. No progress will be made then… here is where things stand tonight.
Reference photo graciously provided by Tambako the Jaguar from Flickr.
Some progress has been made on the jaguar portrait. Used some ink washes to darken some areas (helps to make them recede into the background) and used cross-hatching in some areas to ‘soften’ the focus, as in the lower, right hand area. Hope to finish this by this coming Sunday.
I am also including a close up shot of the right side of the drawing to show detail of the eye, ear, and soft focus background.
Started a new piece last night, on an 8 x 10 board. I really enjoy working on the big cats because of the texture of the fur and the beautiful markings. Stay tuned for updates!
