Honey - finished take two!

After some feedback in the UKCPS group I've made some minor adjustments, I think she looks better now.

Honey ~ finished!

Yes, she's finished. The fur on her neck isn't right but it's as good as I can get it. I'm still not sure why I have so much trouble with it and what it is I do wrong. If anyone who reads my blog has any suggestions I'm happy to hear them - I need all the help I can get!

Next I shall try and finish the little robin I started back in January, maybe in time to print off a few Christmas cards. After that, maybe something a little different; I'm thinking of trying pastel pencils. Just a possible at the moment - I will have to buy some - but I've seen some demos recently that are quite inspiring and I'm quite keen to have a go.

Honey's progress

I had hoped that I would be posting my completed picture today but as you can see that hasn't happened. Not too much progress in fact which is a shame, the light today was perfect but I had to catch up with paid work - I have to do something to pay for all my art materials! I'm comingto the bit I like least, the soft and fluffy looking fur down her neck. I always have difficulty making it look realistic; more so than anywhere else - at least I think so. I am going to try and do my pencil strokes really carefully, studying the way the fur curls and the darkness of the shadows. Fingers crossed that it will at least be a little better than previous pictures!

Foxy lady

Another update on Honey, I did an hour or so on her this morning. Then as you can see I revamped my blog, I hope you like the new colour scheme. I had planned to draw again this afternoon but that idea came to nothing! I had a deadline to meet for getting my response to our National Park Authority's plan for the beautiful New Forest that I live on the edge of. As their plan includes restricting dog walkers, amongst many other undesirable things it was important that I laid my art aside for a few hours! Enough of that and back to Honey. I feel she is really beginning to take shape and even though I can see there are areas I should have done differently I am quite pleased. The colour on the lower half of her face is much more realistic but I can't remember exactly which colours I used - I really must write these things down in a little black book, vbg. So here is Honey - stage four.

Slow progress

I have spent quite a bit of time on Honey today, without much progress. First I made slight adjustment to the fur to the right of her left ear (as you look at her). I knew from Tuesday's scan that it wasn't right, it's funny how scanning it and looking at the picture on the pc can show up the mistakes that I can't see when it's right in front of me. I really struggled with her eye, I started off with much too pale a colour, then of course because it's drafting film I couldn't get the layers to darken it. But I persevered and used the blending pencil and the result is just about ok. I'm still having problems with the fur colours and the fur direction, when I look closely at my reference pic I can see there are so many different colours and the hairs are changing direction here there and everywhere! - I need to be much more patient and precise to get it right - not something I'm good at, bg. Having said all that, I'm still fairly happy with my little vixen - here is stage two.