Lioness wip, finished

Day 3

I've really had to get on today, so haven't taken any more wip. I've added the background so I could see where I needed to add tone and colour. I'm pretty happy, I could probably spend another day on this, but can't, so here it is.

Day 2 Lioness Wip

Day 2, stage 4
I'm hoping the reason I can't see a difference is that I had to take this photo under my day light lamp! I decided to work on this upside down a bit. Its a great way to spot errors, your eyes can't assume things.
I'm fairly pleased, if a little slow to progress. Tomorrow I'm going to work on the background, then decide how much more colour and tone to give the lioness.









Day 2, stage 3
I've decided to spray this with a layer of fixative. I've used some softer pastels to get the softness of the fur, but now want to work some finer detail in. I'm using conte pastels, which are hard, to achieve some finer detail. I've stopped thinking I'm finishing this today, as I haven't even considered the background yet.





Day 2, stage 2

Still getting to grips with the bone structure and muscles. Have started to consider the fur, used a stump (pastel tool) to get a feeling of the direction of the fur. Now I'm really thinking this isn't going to be finished today!







Day 2, Stage 1.
Well, mixed feelings today, I wanted to finish this today, but I am a long way off that. However its going okay, so will crack on. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so won't rush it. I've put some colour and light in her eyes, and continued to add form.

Lioness Wip, part 2

Had some more time to spend on this, which is good as I'm wanting it finished tomorrow. Started to try to understand the form of the lion, where the muscles are and how the weight is distributed. Its so tempting to get stuck straight into the fur, but I don't want her ending up looking like a giant fur-ball!

Lioness Work in Progress

DAY 1
I've started another pastel, I decided to stick with them for the time being. I have got a canvas ready with a project in mind, but for now I'm enjoying the novelty of pastels.
I have spent an hour roughly drawing out the composition. I'm using conte pastels, which are very hard I have blocked out main colour and tonal areas. He doesn't look very soft, but I wanted to get some feel for his form before getting involved in all the fur. I've used hard pastels at this stage as I think to achieve the softness of the fur I will need to slowly work in layers of detail, finishing with the softest pastels. This hopefully will help not to over load the paper, I think I mentioned this approach in my elephant painting.

New Toys!

I've just had my birthday and got lots of new stuff!
I'm feeling very professional now, I've been managing with a old sketching easel and relying on the good light of the Summer. But decided to update so asked everyone to give me art vouchers for my birthday. Got to get busy sorting out my work, and mount it. I've a craft fair this weekend. Got another pastel planned so will get cracking on this also, in hope to have it ready for the weekend. So much planned, so little time.....