Tuesday 8 December 2009

tiger pencil drawing-work in progress

My latest drawing is to be of a tiger.Here the basic building blocks of all my artworks have been started,the layering.Ive already at this point spent a whole day laying down layers of H and HB grade pencil and have made a start on the third layer of B grade pencil.I want to go for a sort of blurry toned background here once again to really lift the tiger from the page especially around the white areas.This,as regular followers of my blog will know,is a very time consuming part of the process but absolutely vital to get a good finish.I'm likely to be working on the background alone for several more days before i can start to get my teeth into the tiger itself.it's quite a large piece this time and so is likely to be the last one completed this year.i shall post more progress once the background is a little more complete but i thought it might be of interest to those keen to know about technique.

7 comments:

Alex Spargo said...

Clive,Can you tell me how you start to do this. i mean is the outline of the Tiger done with pencil? Especially the whiskers? This is completely bewildering to me... I love how you create the drawing but I would love to know how this is done.

Unknown said...

hello alex and thankyou for the question.i workout/refine the outline on a separate piece of scrap cartridge paper before tracing it onto my prepared watercolour paper on the drawing board.the whiskers and other long hairs that require tone around them are scratched into the paper with a knitting needle which indents the paper thus when graphite is overlayed a clean white line is left.hope that helps
best wishes

Alex Spargo said...

Thanks for your reply...
Ok so I am still a bit confused... Prepared watercolour paper?...

Alex Spargo said...

Sorry does the small hairs on his back and chest get done with the knitting needle as well?

Alex Spargo said...

Hi Clive,
By the Way... I think you are very talented... And an inspiration to many. Thank you for showing the world your talents and sharing.
Cheers

Unknown said...

hi alex thankyou for the above comments,it's nice to hear feedback from others in regard to your work as being an artist is a rather insular profession which can sometimes leave one feeling a little directionless and detached especially in the current tough climate.
as to your questions,by prepared paper i mean prepared in my own fashion to suit my style of working.i stretch watercolour paper in exactly the same manner as a watercolourist would to give a nice taught surface and to raise the fibres a little in the hp paper so its not too smooth and has a nice tooth.
in this particular instance ive only used the knitting needles to indent the cats whiskers all the other fur is created by drawing around or by 'lifting out' on some of the finer hairs.i should point out that i use a knitting needle just because they were at hand and came in many differing diameters but almost anything can be used to make indents or marks and there are even specialist tools apparently for doing just that.

Somerset Wedding Girl said...

It looks like it's coming along very nicely! Can't wait to see the finished product!