Monday, June 27, 2016

5:54 in the morning. Part I

It's 5:54 AM, on the cusp of morning. The other half is at work, and I, at a Starbucks. As a millenial, of course I have just enough to have earned a reward for a free drink, 3 shot Latte Machiatto. The car is in need of repair, I have learned, mid-twenties, to finally learn of car pieces, ordering the part needed online. With the wheel hub in box on my passenger seat, I walk, with sketchbook and pens in hand, to the green mermaid inlaid cafe.

The air is sourly sweetened by the ocean air. Cool and crisp, the sky seems to float lightly and brightly, almost as if outlined with polish or a glitter gelly roll pen.

It's perfect. With my hair swirled and piled high on my head, nails just painted by myself the day before, I sit and draw.

Photo courtesy of Wolf Haven International
"Tamaska", a red wolf at Wolf Haven International.

Today's art piece is the red wolf. Terribly endangered in the world we live in today, strong conservation efforts have been put into place to keep this beautiful, shy and graceful beast alive.

With a recent visit to Wolf Haven International in Olympia, WA, I was able to learn about the special breeding program there, and see the vast area of America in where they used to live, to the now mere finger print smudge of a size where they live now.




To better interest you about the Red Wolf, and not bore you on my rant, let's move on. On to the art!

Step 1: Get that idea on paper
I have sketched out the Red Wolf portrait, with the help of reference photos and multiple tries at getting the eyes balanced.
















Step 2: Fur!

Once everything is balanced, it's time to fill in the fur. I have already done a couple of therapy-fur rounds, and am now completing the first layer of black fur at the cafe.                    


The most enjoyable, yet challenging, part about the fur is following the natural direction of the flow. I am not going to lie, I have to use a reference picture. If I don't, I lose the balance and sense of where it goes. 




Step 3: More Fur. Different Color

Now, because of this amazing toned paper, I can move on to white fur. According to the red wolf, the white and light colored fur is located here, here, here and here... and here.. a lot.                                       

Most of the time though, after drawing a few wolf faces, the light colored fur falls in the ear, eyes, nose and cheek area. Because I'm doing more of the body, the insides of the legs are usually more white as well, with the undercoat peeking through on the shoulder and side area.

(You can tell I already started on some, forgetting to take a picture beforehand.) But it's a good idea to see how I usually start with one half of the page and move to the other side.
A short clip of the fine white fur detail. 
(Don't let the high speed fool you, I definitely sped this up for time sake.)




Here you can see all of the white fur done, with a little bit of black touch up. I find that layering these two can create a lot of shade and depth. Depending on what you draw first.

The bottom lip, for example, I did in black first with white on top.  But on the fur next to the left ear, I did a little of both, first black, then mostly white on top, then some more black for layering hair. It's challenging, but fun.












Ok kids! That's all for this blog post. If I type or post any more pictures, it'll surely be a novel to read indeed. (And I'm also exhausted.) So I'm going to break this up into two parts-Line art, then Coloring. 

So keep your eyes out for how I color this baby. I'll give you a teaser; Watercolor Pencils :D

Thank you all for reading and being a part of my art family! I'd love to hear what you think, or if you have any feed back or comments or love, feel free and post below! 

And as always, you can see my most up to date art posts on Instagram at @tropicalbasenji. 

Hope you all have a beautiful week~

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