Giraffe drawing update

As you can see the adult giraffe is now complete except for the hooves which i will draw once the rest of the drawing is finished.The next phase of the drawing will be to add the calf,which you may be able to pick out my outlines for behind it's mother's legs.The legs of the mother giraffe were completed in layers of H and HB grade pencils only as the tones are quite pale here,as mentioned previously the calf will be a tad darker and looking straght at the viewer so he stands out nicely.

Giraffe and calf pencil drawing progression

Yesterday i took time out from this drawing to get out onto my local nature reserve Titchfield Haven for an afternoon's birding the highlight of which was watching a female marsh harrier hunting over the reedbeds,what a treat for tired eyes!.So progress on the giraffe hasn't been quite as quick as i had hoped but nonetheless it's progressing nicely.ive completed the body of the adult. And now moving onto the legs,as usual building up the tone in layers,you can see how on the furthest leg i have layed down an initial layer of H grade pencil and am now starting to work into it with the same pencil but a little harder to block in some of the markings.Another day in the studio should see the adult complete i can then move onto the calf.The adult giraffe is going to be paler than the calf which should help to make the calf stand out rather than disappear completely behind it's mother.

Giraffe and calf pencil drawing

My new drawing is portraying a giraffe calf standing behind it's mothers legs.i hope you can see the outline that ive traced from my rough paper to the prepared watercolour paper.conditions were a little dark here today with heavy snow falling and so i'm afraid the photos are not the best,ive posted a full length photo and a close up shot.so far ive blocked in the patchs of colour on the animals coat with H grade pencil and then worked them up individually,layering and adding in fur details with a B grade pencil.

'Low Tide-Little Egret' 5"x11"

All that remained to be done today was to complete the protruding mud bank and the reflection from the bird.i wanted to get across the impression of wet mud here and so i indented lots of highlights on the mud bank and then layered over with H and HB grade pencils before adding some loose details with a B grade pencil.i think it's worked out well,it's certainly been an enjoyable little piece to work on as it's a local scene to me and encompasses my two favourite elements water and birds.

Little Egret drawing-progress

The water reflections and ripples are now complete as is the backlit Egret.The bird comprises of multiple layers of H grade pencil followed by some judicious use of HB graphite to show the darkest shadows.All that remains is to draw the mudbank protruding from the water,for which i shall have to indent plenty of highlights into the paper.

Start of a new egret drawing

After a day spent trying out various compositions on scraps of cartridge paper ive finally settled on the image here.ive stretched and dried the watercolour paper overnight and then traced my scribblings onto the fresh sheet of paper.Here you can see that ive started by laying down a 'wash' of very lightly applied H grade pencil for the lightest tone of the water and then ive overlayed in places with a sharper H grade pencil the darker areas of water and ripples.These will require further layers of softer graphite to darken them up quite a bit and fainter ripples will be drawn in using a paper blender rubbed into graphite.this drawing,like my previous egret image,will be concentrating on the lovely,almost still,bright autumn sunshine and the reflections cast by the egret on the water by the backlit bird.this image is again based on observations of the little egret on the salt marsh on the river hamble near to my home in warsash.

Siberian Tigress

Well here we are...the finished tiger portrait!.The fur detail that remained to be done has been completed and layers of graphite built up on top giving the cat that final shape and form.Ive performed a few tweaks here and there and now feel that ive done as much as i can here and so i'm calling it complete.