Not quite a seal....Elephant version 2 Wip

I know I said I was drawing a seal next, and I definitely intend to soon, as it is a nice photo. However, I had one last look through my photos, and came across one that my Dad took when he was in South Africa. It grabbed my attention as its so different to my last drawing which was very gentle. The elephant has so much presence, and the light is fantastic. I previously mentioned I wanted a subject to test out my new pastelmat paper. The makers of this paper claim that multiple layers of pastel can be laid down without fixative (desirable as fixative dulls down some of the vibrancy of pastels). Well I think with the texture of the elephants skin, combined with the shadows from the bush on it, plus the bush itself, should do that! One thing I've noticed from today boy does it eat away your pastels. I used hard conte to block in a rough composition today, half my conte rapidily disappeared.

What's next then?

That's been my thought today. I've some new pastelmat paper I want to try, but need to decide upon a subject. I want it to be fairly complex to test out the pastelmat paper, that claims to be able to hold multiple layers of pastel, without the need for a fixative. I've still a gouache painting to complete, but the temptation to try my new paper has won over. Here are some of my considerations today, the peacock feather definitely a challenge, but I haven't recovered from my peacock oil painting that I did last year!



This photo makes me laugh, it looks like the dove is in disbelieve that a parakeet has come to dine with him, but I think not for this project! The hippo shot got me thinking to try to get lots of different texture, but I don't like the fact it was obviously taken in a zoo.



I have decided to use a photo that was taken by my father in the Antarctic. It shows a seal up close in its natural habitat. I'm not posting this photo, I want to keep the painting a suprise. I hope it turns out, there are some lovely textures to explore.

Deer in Richmond Park, finished

Well I've finally finished this, I think. Its been one of those stop start projects, I definitely lost my direction mid-way. I think it works okay now, probably not one of my better drawings, but it does bring back memories of all the snow in Richmond park.