Friday 25 February 2011

Presenting 'Snow cub-snow leopard' 8.5"x11.25"

The completed snow leopard cub drawing.This one will be whisked off to be scanned and framed asap.This along with all my other drawings featured on the blog is for sale,if anyone is interested please email me for details of this and other works.

Thursday 24 February 2011

Snow leopard cub drawing progress

my snow leopard cub drawing is coming along nicely now.they are quite a tricky subject because of the subtleties of the coat colouration and having the darker background helps to highlight the cats fur and its different tones.the background is going to need further toning but my immediate attention is going to be paid to my least favourite part of any cat drawing ,the ears.normally i draw the ears first and the eyes last to get the ears out of the way early on as i find them so tricky and save the eyes the 'icing on the cake' until last because its such a thrill to see the completed drawing suddenly spring into life.this time ive just abandoned my usual practice and charged in wherever i felt like.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Snow leopard cub drawing

First stages of a new small drawing of a snow leopard cub.the background toning has been worked up over a couple of days and will require further work but for now ive moved onto the cat.one ear is complete and ive started marking in the spots and darker areas prior to overlayering with softer graphite.its going to be a simple but nonetheless cute portrait of the cub,sometimes simple is best

Saturday 19 February 2011

Brand new limited edition print released

Stealth-Sumatran tiger
My latest limited edition print has just been released by my publishers Collier and Dobson ltd.An edition of only 195 each print has been hand signed and numbered by me and is available mounted and wrapped or framed and comes in two image sizes 40 x 26cms and an enlarged version designed to have real impact on a wall the image size of which is 65.6 x 44cms.they can be ordered from my publishers website www.clivemeredith.com

Thursday 17 February 2011

A blast from the past!

Whilst i'm busy working up the background toning for my latest drawing of a snow leopard cub i thought i'd post this image of my last oil painting of a Kingfisher.i did this about 15 years ago and its been languishing in the loft pretty much eversince but recently my wife found it and has insisted on putting it on the wall.Looking at it again after all these years i can see areas where i would have improved it had i been able or experienced enough to notice.but it got me thinking and the upshot of it was that i went out and bought some more oils and one day when i get some time i'm gonna give them another go.Although dont hold your breath in anticipation!

Sunday 13 February 2011

Bull Elephant-Pala u falls,thailand


Ive finally called time on this image as i feel ive done all i can to liven up the original drawing.i think ive managed to add substantially to the interesting nature of the piece although it's not without problems.most notably the slight indistinctness of the back of the elephant against the tones of the rear falls,but after lots of tweaking ive decided to live with it rather than risk over-doing it.i hope you all feel that the exercise has been worthwhile however.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Got it straight in my head,now to put it on the paper!


i like to shake things up every now and again and short of re-inventing myself and my work every few years the next best thing for me is to push myself into areas outside of my normal comfort zone.And so it is with the re-vamping of this elephant piece.From a very simple study piece it has grown into a full-grown landscape scene incorporating an elephant!.The piece continues to grow and test my stamina and after a day or two trying to work out where to go next with this composition ive settled on a further,higher,waterfall for dramatic effect.You can see that ive roughly blocked in the waterfall behind and above the elephant,next to work it up to fruition but without too much tone or detail as i want it 'pushed back' to help with the illusion of depth and distance.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Elephant drawing progressing slowly


The elements in this one are starting to come together now.still needs some work on the foreground but for now ive got to come up with something for the background and so its back to my reference material for inspiration.

Saturday 5 February 2011

asian elephant drawing progression

Another day in the studio see's the falls completed and from here i shall move forward onto the water and reflections before completing the bank upon which the elephant is standing.I'm still not quite sure what i shall be doing above the falls but with a bit of luck it will come to me before i finish the foreground.

Friday 4 February 2011

Elephant drawing re-vamp started


Ive decided to attempt to re-create a scene from the area i visited in thailand where there were many wild elephants to be seen.The area known as the pala-u waterfalls was set deep in jungle and the dirt road to the falls was littered with the evidence of crossing by wild elephants.nearby was a village where for a small fee you could enjoy the jungle atop an elephant and this was by far the easiest way to come across there wild cousins.ive not got a large area to work with here and so i'm trying to capture one of the falls and so far ive completed the rocks of the falls on one side of the elephant and next it will be onto the falls itself,something ive never attempted in pencil before.this image is a bit of an organic process as apart from the key element of the falls i'm going to be making the rest up as i go.

Thursday 3 February 2011

re-vamping of a drawing


This image entitled 'Bull Asian Elephant' was completed a couple of years ago now but hasn't really gleaned a lot of interest and so ive decided to give it a little re-vamp.This could turn out to be a complete disaster if it goes wrong however i'm going to attempt to transform it from a study style piece into a piece where the elephant is back where i first observed it.In this case it was on the Thai/burmese border on a riverbank in front of a series of waterfalls set deep within the forests.There isn't much room on the paper to describe the scene but i'll attempt to get it into context and hopefully this will add that element thats currently missing from the piece and with a bit of luck attract a buyer.