This is my latest project. I love big cats and have been waiting for a gap in work to be able to get started on one. I am currently in love with Stonehenge cotton paper since seeing fellow facebook artists using it. I found this reference photo ages ago and it has been patiently waiting on my computer for ages!
I decided that I was going to just go for it, so no prep sketches, no grids of any kind, just let my hands do it. Pretty scary as at the very least I always use reference lines, but not this time!
So as it it's pastel I knew I would have to progress down the page. I have stopped using fixative on my pastel work as it dulls the pigment so that combined with needing to keep the black paper spotless meant I just had to go straight down with very few revisits to earlier lines.
I decided that I was going to just go for it, so no prep sketches, no grids of any kind, just let my hands do it. Pretty scary as at the very least I always use reference lines, but not this time!
So as it it's pastel I knew I would have to progress down the page. I have stopped using fixative on my pastel work as it dulls the pigment so that combined with needing to keep the black paper spotless meant I just had to go straight down with very few revisits to earlier lines.
After quite a slow start I began to quicken up a bit. I did no fill shading at all, just worked on the fur in the direction it falls going over with the different colours to ensure depth in the coat.
I used blues, greys, reds, browns, greens, purples yellows whites and golds to get the depth in the fur.
One thing I noticed early on was how the texture of his coat changed down his body. Quite short and compact but soft on his head, almost downy fluff on the inside of his right leg, down to courser shorter hair on his lower legs and paws. Therefore I found my technique had to change a lot as I travelled down him.
I used blues, greys, reds, browns, greens, purples yellows whites and golds to get the depth in the fur.
One thing I noticed early on was how the texture of his coat changed down his body. Quite short and compact but soft on his head, almost downy fluff on the inside of his right leg, down to courser shorter hair on his lower legs and paws. Therefore I found my technique had to change a lot as I travelled down him.
You can see here that I did have to go back over with the more reddy colours as I felt that he was a bit yellow. I then added the depth to his whiskers using mainly blue and white but some yellow and brown too to accent them.
You can see the progression in the change of fur texture beginning to appear here too. I started to add some carbon pencil too to really give a sharp edge to some of his fur on his legs
You can see the progression in the change of fur texture beginning to appear here too. I started to add some carbon pencil too to really give a sharp edge to some of his fur on his legs
So here the fur is almost complete.
I added a lot more purple and blue tones to his right foot to really give them the 'fur caught in the light' look. I used very short strokes with a very sharp pencil (extremely laborious condidering the pencils needed re-sharpening after about 5 strokes!) and built them up very slowly, stepping back to see from a distance regularly.
Finally I added the fluffy fur and tapered the whiskers right down and refined them
I added a lot more purple and blue tones to his right foot to really give them the 'fur caught in the light' look. I used very short strokes with a very sharp pencil (extremely laborious condidering the pencils needed re-sharpening after about 5 strokes!) and built them up very slowly, stepping back to see from a distance regularly.
Finally I added the fluffy fur and tapered the whiskers right down and refined them
So finally after about 20 hours and countless pencils I have finished! I asked around for opinion on what to put him on. Opinion seemed to be very devided but it the end a rock was the seat of choice!
I went for a very simple, hardly there suggestion of a rock to avoid detracting from the main image and blended quite a lot.
So here he is........... "Contemplation" Fabre Castel pastel pencils and carbon pencil on Stonehenge cotton paper, approx 5ocm x 45cm
I went for a very simple, hardly there suggestion of a rock to avoid detracting from the main image and blended quite a lot.
So here he is........... "Contemplation" Fabre Castel pastel pencils and carbon pencil on Stonehenge cotton paper, approx 5ocm x 45cm