Wolf in tinted charcoal

I ordered a tin of 24 tinted charcoal pencils made by Derwent. I was taken with the lovely subdued colours, and couldn't wait to give them a try. I had this lovely reference photo taken by Jason Morgan which I thought would work with these pencils a treat.

I have called it 'Keeping Watch'. I used Clairefontein Pastelmat in dark grey, and it measures roughly A3.

I enjoyed using the pencils and will definitely be using them again soon, perhaps elephant? Maybe another wolf? Not sure yet.

Little Birds #2

Well, I was far from satisfied with my previous goldfinch and decided to try again, this time on drafting film. (Thanks for the suggestion Pauline). This time I think I have pulled it off. Each picture is so very small that it is difficult to get much detail, which is what I go for. I compared the two goldfinches and wondered what had happened to my judgement! The first one should have gone straight in the bin (where it is now). Both the robin and the goldfinch measure 2 x 3" and I used mostly Polychromos and a few Karisma pencils. They each took about 3 hours to do, speedy for me, but I didn't want to spend too much time on them. I will be doing a kingfisher next.

The reference photos were taken by David Longshaw, who kindly gave me permission to use them. Thanks David.