Exotic Mammals

I’ve gotten so many BM’s from assorted people asking me about how I do things that I thought maybe this would be a good way of “showing” you a work in progress. / This particular piece is commissioned. That being said, I really hope he doesn’t pop in and take a look.. so I just won’t mention his name until he has it in his hands. At any rate.. the format is 12×16. I began with the background – which, for all intents and purposes is complete. Then I moved into the cat. The first layer is a very light gray wash.. then I add a darker color for where the spots go.. there is also some very light blue and some ochre – again, very watered down. Now comes the beginning of the colored pencil. I usually work from left to right as I am right handed and I really hate laying my hand across finished work!! Besides, being human we have oil in our skin and most of the media I use doesn’t blend well with oil! You will also notice that the eyes are pretty much complete. They are my barometer.. if they are wrong, the piece goes no farther.. so they are usually done before anything else is. Do keep an eye on this “space”.. / Please understand that you’re not going to be getting these progressive pictures as they happen. This piece was started over a month ago (I had other things that were pressing, so it had to wait) and has been worked on in “bits and pieces” when I had the time. / So, picture 2 shows that I am working the colored pencil, still mostly on the left side but definitely moving down. There’s still a lot of white areas that have only had one layer of watercolor added. / Picture 3: The colored pencil is now spreading. I used mostly Prismacolor and here are some of the colors you’re looking at: All the warm greys, all the french greys, cloud blue, espresso, sandbar brown, terre cotta, medium flesh, dark flesh, slate blue, seashell pink, greyed lavender, green brown, putty beige, peach beige, ginger root, celadon green, black, white, sky blue, powder blue, greyed green and I can’t remember what else right now. Also there are some Faber-Castell and Derwent in there (for shades and colors that Prismacolor doesn’t make or carry). As I have said many times before, I’m a bit heavy handed when it comes to my colors and I layer them on very thickly. / Picture 4: The face now has “color” and I have to figure out what I’m going to do with the “body” – even though there isn’t very much showing, every little bit makes a difference in how someone sees your work. / Picture 5: And now comes more watercolor washes. I’ve added a stronger ochre and then – after that dried – I added a grey-brown, for lack of a better term. Then, I took a well deserved break and let it dry completely. / Picture 6: Now that the watercolor is dried completely, I have to go over the blacks and dark colors because they get altered by the watercolor wash. As I’m working the “body” I’m also looking at the face and adding little touches that I think it needs. Odd little colors like pink, purple and green that would show up if the animal were standing right in front of me with natural light. / Picture 7: And now after I’ve added my little touches and am pretty happy with the outcome.. the highlights… oooooooohhhh!! This is the fun part. I use an opaque watercolor, thinned out a bit for all the white areas. It’s so much easier on me and my hands to do it this way rather than the way I used to. I get a very clean white that stands up to everything around it. The piece is now complete and my signature goes on. / / I hope you enjoyed this little journey with me and I look forward to doing this again but only if you want me too.

I was wondering what long lens any of you wildlife photographers favour? I use a 70-300mm lens but was wondering whether to get a bigger one. Can anyone recommend anything for a Nikon? And how do you get on if it’s really heavy – does that mean you have to lug a tripod around with you, or is a monopod sufficient..?