Monday, March 16, 2009

Cats - 2nd try! Colored pencil...

I haven't posted an update on my colored pencil cats portrait for awhile...I had made good progress, but then realized some of the proportions were off and I messed up the markings on the face. Big no-no if I want the owner of the cats to enjoy the artwork!

So, I decided to redraw the base drawing, fixing my proportions and markings. Lesson for all - one I have learned before, but apparently forgotten - make sure your original, base drawing is 100% correct before you begin with color or paint! If it isn't, it will never look quite right, no matter how nicely you render your colored pencil strokes or watercolor washes.


I finally came up with a base drawing that I feel is accurate (as compared to the photos, which is what I am working from...) What you see below is where I have begun to replace my base, graphite drawing with colored pencil (using light gray to mark in the outlines of various areas.) I did render the eyes first and was happy with the way that turned out, so I proceeded with the fur, beginning to add color to the first colored pencil layer.


Stay tuned for further updates!
P.S. My scanner isn't large enough to capture the whole drawing in one scan, so I will just post pieces of it for now to demonstrate my progress.


2 comments:

MILLY said...

I am sure the cats will be beautiful with your attention to detail. I often give up on a drawing and the second version turns out well and so much better because of the first attempt.

Carol Creech said...

Thanks very much! Kind of you to say. Yes, I agree about the second version. I am really pleased with how the final drawing turned out (see my post from earlier this week...)

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