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.

Little Birds

My brother made some beautiful little frames for me and I have decided that little British birds would look really good in them. I have decided on a Goldfinch, a Robin and a Kingfisher, all colourful little birds. I have completed the Goldfinch and such small drawings are definitely challenging, I cant get the level of detail I would like. They measure 2" x 3" and I am using Fabrianno Artistico paper and Karisma pencils. 

Here is the Goldfinch. I hope to have the robin done soon. 

Ooops, I see it needs a little tweaking around the beak, which I shall have to sort out.

Spotted - Amur Leopard

Over the last month I have been working on this beautiful Amur Leopard. I was very lucky to get this shot of him in the only patch of sunlight there was in his enclosure. He lives at Cricket St Thomas Wildlife park, (I have just read that in fact the leopards will be going from here as will all the other large animals, sad as this was a good place for me to get reference photos for my art). I had no idea that this species of Leopard is so critically endangered. There are only 32 animals alive in the wild and 200 in captivity, where their gene pool is getting dangerously small.

The picture is A3 in size and I used mostly Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils with a few of the old Karisma pencils. The support is Clairefontaine Pastelmat in pale yellow.

Interpretive boards

Wow, where did the time go! I did mean to update my blog once every couple of weeks at least, didn't seem to be able to get to it recently. I have been busy illustrating and designing some interpretive boards for the Environment Agency and thought I would post two of them here so you can see what I do when wearing my other hat, so to speak. These boards are A1 in size so quite large. I have used mainly watercolours for the illustrations with a little coloured pencil just to crisp up the details, especially for the creatures. I use a much looser style for these boards as I cant go taking months just to get one illustration done. 

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/

 

This is the completed panel showing the location and some of the wildlife that can be seen in the area.

Below is a close up of the background illustration.

  

This is a board done for the Curry Moor pumping Station with a little of its history and some of the wildlife found in the rhynes (pronounced reens) or ditches. Below is a close up of the river bank showing above and below the waterline.

 

 

Coloured pencil Rhino finished

This is the completed drawing of the Rhino. I have titled it 'Heavyweight'. The background is merely suggested as I didn't want it to compete with the animal, yet still wanted to convey the dust and heat of Africa.

'Heavyweight'

Size 21.5 x 29.5cms
Watersoluble coloured pencils

Fabrianno Artistico hot press paper

Rhino in watersoluble coloured pencil.

Over the holidays I have been taking some time out to draw something for myself and decided to try out some of Derwent's new watersoluble pencils I bought at the NEC in November. I am surprised to find I really like them, up to now I have not liked watersolubles, but these work well.

First I lay down a very light layer of dry colour pencil, and then dissolved the colour using one of those water brush thingys....stops me flooding everything with water as I usually do. This is the early stage.

Then I worked over this base colour using dry pencil , building up tone and colour and adding in the wrinkles and skin textures. Here I am almost complete. I am hoping to finish it later today and will post the results.