A trip to London Zoo

We have had a lovely day at London Zoo. I took my camera, it still appears to work since being dragged around the petrol station forecourt. Today I was trying to get some different photos, not the obvious penguin, giraffe ones.





However there was one I couldn't resist taking, the meerkats looked like they were topping up their tans!

It's spot the difference time! WIP day7

Mmmm...I spent an hour or so on this today, I decided I wasn't happy with the shape of the deer's skull and muzzle. I'll leave it to you to decided if it was time well spent. One problem I do have is pastel overload on the background by the deer on the left of the picture by it's eye. I think I caused the problem by using charcoal pencil to shade behind the socket of the eye, which flattened the grain of the paper. I can't get the pastel to take on the surface in that area. My only thought at the moment is to roughen the area with a fine sandpaper, and hope not to mangle the paper.

Deer in Richmond Park, wip day 6

I'm slowly beginning to get there with this. I've spent an hour today on the background. The shadows have a blue/violet tone, but also a rosy tone appears on the snow, there is more to snow than white! Once I'm happy with the snow I will work the finer details of the hair on the edge of the deer. There are also tufts of grass I need to address.

Deer in Richmond Park wip day 5

Chip,chip,chip....I think best explains today's progress. I'm still working further into the pastel layers adding texture. I had a go at the body and legs today, and pondered the background. I've got a new daylight bulb after my accident yesterday, so the photo taken today resembles a better colour likeness.

Deer in Richmond Park wip day 4

I'm still chipping away at this. The gremlins have been out to get me the past couple of days. Its a miracle I still have a working camera after yesterday, I managed to not notice it following me out of the car, shutting the door on the strap. My husband was alerted by an on-looker that the camera was hanging out of the door, by which time he'd dragged it across the forecourt of the petrol station. Today I've managed to knock my daylight easel lamp off my easel onto an opened draw, smashing the lamp....I've started to work in the texture of the fur, I'm still mainly using hard pastels, and getting some finer detail with a purple tinted charcoal pencil.

A chilly Painshill Park

Even after several days of warmer weather, today was a scorching 8 degrees, the lakes were still frozen at Painshill Park. A family of swans were taking a stroll across it!

The ice was beautiful in the sunshine. It was lovely today not to have cold toes, a sure sign things have warmed up!