Sketches

Growing up a friend of mine had a beautiful German Shepherd. As kids we spent hours playing with the dog and would take her to the park. The funny thing that I remember about walks in the park with Princess (that’s what my friend named her dog) is that the dog would take her for a walk.

Using the prismacolor pencils I made 2 light layers of black and 2 layers of burnt orchard and light umber. Lightly applying one layer of mineral spirits to the nose and eye area I waited for the sketch to dry. The last 2 layers I applied heavier pressure to the pencils with black and burnt orchard. I realize that the dogs nose is too big and the right eye is off. This was my first try with a German Shepherd….so I’ll give it another go..

 

Here’s my second go with a side view of a German Shepherd.

Before working on the German Shepherd I started meticulously studying Lions. Being a big fan of the Big Cats I was inspired at a young age to draw them.

This is just the first draft and the first 2 layers of black, burnt orchard, light umber and a layer of mineral spirits.

The sketch is 17.5 x 18 on heavy mixed media paper. I look forward to working with this Lion and will post as I make more progress.

Making more progress with the Lion today. Drawling the fun is a tad redundant but the Lion is slowly coming together.

Just framed the Lion with card stock and hung him in my studio. It took about 7 layers of black, burnt orchard and light umber to finish this Lion.

If you’d like to try your hand at sketching a Lion you can e-mail me and I’d be happy to send you a really good picture that I found online. Here’s the final picture of the Lion sketch with whiskers painted in with white acrylic paint.

Next several animals I think I’ll work on Ringtail Lemers and Cheetahs.

Cheetahs are well know for their speed. I think they can run up to 70 miles per hour. In this sketch I use the same colors I used to sketch the Lion.

Ringtail Lemurs are known for their prominent eyes. From what I studied about them they spend a lot of time with their young and enjoy eating the fresh fruit from the trees.

I used a light and dark charcoal pencil for the gray and black fur in the Lemurs body. For the eyes I used a prismacolor burnt orchard pencil and  2 soft pastels sticks for the background.