Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

Well I've kind of made an impromtu art studio outside on the bench, not that I have a studio inside, but you catch my drift! After my laptop purchase I'm able to sit outside in the glorious sunshine and play on the internet, go shopping and do a bit of art! Fab! The only downside is I am being continually hounded, and that is the right term, by Willow. She constantly drops her ball at my feet to play football, her life now seems to revolve around a walk in the woods and then football, regardless of what anyone else wants to do! Bless. Anyway back to Bodie's pet portrait, this photo is not the best due to the bright sunshine (not complaining at all) but lighting is a major issue when trying to show all the detail of work. However, a few more techniques I have discovered about the wonderful support drafting film.

Use a medium colour for the base, in the case of Bodie I chose a palish medium brown and was able to add darker shades or highlights where needed. I think if you choose a very light or dark base colour it would take too many layers to get back where you wanted to be as the layers are very restricted.

Don't use an eraser! This does leave some sort of residue or may even remove the surface of the film, but I have found that after rubbing something out the next layers of pencils on this area are severely reduced, sometimes even another single layer is impossible. Even pencils can be removed by a damp tissue on drafting film (always use a new clean tissue not a cloth as the colour may remain on the surface unless fully removed.

Don't leave your pencils out in the sun! Sounds an odd thing to notice but due to the need for such fine points on pencils, warm weather softens the points and makes them drag a little making any lines so much less fine, I did find a use for leaving pencils out in the sunshine when using coloursoft pencils on cartridge paper as they blended even more than usual.

And I've framed my amur leopard, I couldn't find anyone local who cut made to measure mounts so I bought a larger frame and used spacers to prevent the portrait touching the glass directly.

So it's now back to football, letting all my furry friends out when it cools down a bit and actually getting something to eat (breakfast hasn't even happened yet!)