Heather Ward

I’d like to take this opportunity to announce my plans for huge project. This will be, by far, the biggest piece I’ve ever done and I expect it to take several months. I’ll be working on it in between smaller projects. I’m posting this now because if people know about it, I’ll be more motivated to work on it. I’m quite excited about it, actually.

The scene will be an underwater coral reef. I’ll do it in colored pencil on 30”x15” paper. I have done extensive research on various types of coral, fish and other sea life that live in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and have put together a scene with a many of these animals with a great variety of color.

The layout is complete, and I’ve just started adding color. I will be keeping updates on my blog and will post updated images here as well.

Step 1: Research, Sketch and Layout (4 hours)

Step 2: Giant Sea Clam (8 hours)

Step 3: Yellow Damselfish, Longfin Bannerfish and Red Soft Coral (5.5 hours)

Step 4: Red and Blue Sea Stars, Leather Coral and Purple Soft Coral (8 hours, added 06/18/08)

Step 5: Hard Coral and Pink Soft Coral (6 hours, added 07/15/08)

Step 6: Green Sea Fan, start of Red Lionfish (2 hours, added 08/30/08)

Step 7: Orange Sea Whip, Green Hard Coral, Clown Triggerfish (2 hours, added 01/07/09)

Step 8: Red Lionfish, Brain Coral, Sea Anemones, Orange Fairy Basslets (added 05/13/09)

Step 9: Plate Coral, Staghorn Coral, Manta Rays (added 05/21/09)