Just a quick note to say that I posted an illustration for this week's IF on my Illustration Blog. I decided to create two separate blogs; keeping this one for my more elaborate endeavors and the other for IF fun. If you'll notice, I left a couple of IF posts here instead of moving them. I did this so the links from the IF site would still work.

Anyway, check out the illustration and leave a comment...it's kinda lonely over there at the moment.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Tiger Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail

5 x 7

Prismacolor Colored Pencils

on Strathmore Bristol

Vellum

This small drawing was done from one of my reference photos and, after being sprayed with a fixative, will be given to my daughter.

Weaver - 97% Complete

Weaver - 97% Complete

Weaver - Stage 2

Here is the second installment of Weaver, I would have had a bit more to show, but I worked on something else yesterday an didn't get around to doing anything to this one.

 

I've only progressed a bit today; adding some color to the ground and deepening the existing values. I also added more shading to the front of Weaver, a bit of shadow on the rear legs, and used a colorless blender pencil in a few areas. I layered indigo blue over the black in the background to try to darken it a bit while still trying to maintain the fairly even texture that I've got going on now. I know that it doesn't sound like much, but even these little tweaks took quite a bit of time.

 

I still feel that the background needs darkened more, but I am hesitant to add more layers or colors. I'm also trying to go for a more abstract muted background with only specks of detail here and there to keep the focus on the subject.

 

What do you think, do I need to go darker with the background? Don't be shy...I could use the help. I'm a very indecisive person.

Weaver - Stage 1

Weaver

approx. 8 x 10

Prismacolor on Bristol Vellum

This is a drawing of my friend's dog, Weaver. This isn't finished because it needs a few more layers of color, and the ground needs to be finished so that you can see his feet. This is not really what I would consider the first stage, but it's the first stage that I will post. The first stage would be a really light layer of color to establish the base color map (I call it) and fur direction.

I've read where and I've seen how black dulls color, but there are times when black is appropriate. Complementary or analagous colors are often used by artists to create shading and shadows.