This is my latest work in progress. It's in reverse because I took it with Photobooth on my laptop... yeah, it was silly looking while I was doing it, holding my laptop up in the air in a fashion similar to how Moses might have held up those tablets to the sinners straddling that gold bull. I am excited as - insert witty analogy here- about this piece. This photograph is from night before last, as of tonight I've finished the tiger's head and I am work on the water now... what water you ask? well, you'll just have to wait and see. Water, yes, and the girl... there's a girl too, but she's asleep. The panel is three feet wide by two feet high. I've logged somewhere between 18 to 20 hours into this work so far... that is counting composing the source image in Photoshop, printing to scale, sketching the outlines and now coloring. The medium is as usual, colored pencil.
Hair is my least favorite part of a figure. It is very similar to figuring out the conturing of clothing, which isn't in my list of favorite things to render either, but perhaps, higher on the list. I was concerned with this work, that I would become oft and easily frustrated or tired of the process due to the fact that animals, in this case a tiger, are nothing but hair. However, working through the animals head, I have really enjoyed myself, perhaps more because it's a tiger, and I got to draw the mouth around the same time which I was really looking forward to. (I've been on a real predator's mouth drawing kick lately, I will explain ((perhaps)) in another blog). I still have most of the body to draw hair all over, but I've got a system going, and since it's more like skin-- I have to think about muscle contours etc., it's been a bit more rewarding than drawing a plain ol'up-do.
Bottom line: Animal hair can stay in the game... but all you humans may end up bald.
