Cheetah portrait

the cheetah is almost complete now, a few tonal tweaks and finishing up on the eyes and it'll be there.

Winter Moorhen drawing

I thought i would post an updated image of my winter moorhen drawing.i took it off the drawing board a couple of weeks ago whilst i thought about how to finish it convincingly.i've now finished tinkering with it and i'm calling it finished.

Cheetah portrait

since my last post i have again been short of studio time due to unforeseen circumstances in the shape of the family renault that has an alarming propensity for breakdowns,however, this fixed, i have now been able to get a full day's work in on the cheetah.much layering has taken place on the body of the cat and because they're such pale cats it's steady going applying graphite as sparingly as possible each time.spots have been worked up to a point where they will only require another couple of layers to get that lovely opaque black,indeed a few have been fully worked up.the fur has been roughly portrayed over much of the body.it now remains to keep working on the body of the cat over the next day or two to work in some real feeling of depth and form and then of course come the eyes.

Cheetah portrait

I've not had too many hours in the studio over the last couple of days but this is the current state of the cheetah portrait.Layering has begun on the ear of the cat,with both H and HB grade pencil laid in.Once this has been completed i shall start working up the spots on the cheetahs coat.

Cheetah portrait

The portrait is coming along slowly.

Cheetah portrait

Progress has been slow on my cheetah portrait not for any particular reason other than the sudden appearance of a mystery object over the uk,apparently it's known as the 'sun' .Due to this unexpected but gratefully received phenomena i couldn't resist the temptation to abandon the studio for a few days of 'r n r'.Having gotten back to work today i thought i would post a couple of progress shots,the first showing the progress of the underdrawing and building up of tone and form in layers of H,HB and B grade pencil.The second photo shows the beginnings of rendering the fur texture with a 2B pencil,there is still a long way to go on defining the cheetah's markings but it is beginning to take shape.

Cheetah portrait

This is my new drawing on the board,in contrast to my last moorhen drawing this is a more straightforward portrait.I love the big cats and have had some lovely reference photo's of cheetah's for ages that ive just never gotten around to drawing.In this photo you can see that i've plotted the spots and main features and started to layer those.ive also layered the background with blended 8B over-layered with H,B and 2B in a simple but i hope effective way in keeping with the image as a whole.

Moorhen drawing progress

I have now for the most part completed the moorhen drawing.I say for the most part because even though i'm calling it complete i still feel it needs a little work in the foreground around the moorhen itself.The foreground here lacks a little texture or interest and so ive taken the drawing off the board whilst i work on something else and think about the finishing touches required here.Sometimes a little distance is required to come up with the perfect solution to a little niggle.I am very pleased with the drawing nontheless and have learned a lot during it's execution,particularly about portraying snow accurately.When finally come up with the solution i'll post the complete image here.In the meantime with one eye on the impending summer show season starting for me in may at the badminton horse trials i must get a move on in preparing new images,both domestic and exotic,for my regular collectors and hopefully some new clients,credit crunch permitting of course!.

Moorhen drawing progress

The drawing is progressing slowly but surely,although i could resist no longer the urge to start drawing the moorhen despite still having work to do on the foreground.

Moorhen drawing progress

The moorhen picture is finally starting to gel after several days work on the foreground.The ice covered water has been layered with H and HB grade pencils 4 times so far and blended once,there is still a way to go yet to reach the final slightly darker tone i want.Now with the background more or less complete bar a few tweaks the picture is coming to life and looking less like a jigsaw every day.Another day spent layering on the foreground should see that complete and then ,at last,i can begin on the moorhen itself.