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A collection of animal sketches and paintings, in various media including digital.
My digital painting of a cow, using watercolour brushes.
My sketch above in fineliner of a woodpecker.
An observational drawing of my cat (colour pencils). I used different pressure with the pencil when illustrating depending on the shadows and light source. I also painted individual pen strokes to try and capture the fur realistically.
Observational sketches from around my house: Swans on the beach (pencil H2, 3B) and water (fineliner); and a goose on the beach (Fineliner).
To the right: Bird (compressed charcoal, blur stick).
A digital painting of a cat.
Observational sketches: from a farm near my home.
Above - sketch of pig (6B pencil).
Above right: sketch of Horse's head (4B and 7B pencil).
To the right - sketch of horse (biro) I used hatching for texture.
Below an anatomy study of a pig (white chalk, black charcoal, brown paper), with a drawing of the pig beneath (HB pencil).
Above right - observational sketch of a pig and piglets (HB pencil) using hatching and cross hatching.
Below - a watercolour painting of a pig. I wasn't too happy with this so decided to experiment further with my paintings below.
Watercolour paintings of wildlife: To the left, a deer where I used the watercolour brushes, but for the deer's fur I wanted a more textured look. For the fox on the right, I went with a more fluid watercolour look, by adding water to the paper first which made the watercolour paint blend more.
My fox inspired by artist Karl Martens whose own fox is below.
Creating digital Animals to look like watercolour
These watercolour animals are inspired by the artist Sandi Mower, whom I researched, and whose use of watercolour and the splatter effect makes the subject feel like it's alive and moving. I decided to try the same technique but digitally as the animals were going to be used on a promotional pamphlet and I felt that a digital representation looked more professional. I painted with a ditial watercolour brush to see if I could get a similar effect.
My finished pamphlet below.
Experimentation with French Curve Tool
I finally settled on a bird after experimenting with the various animal designs on the left. As mentioned below, I was inspired by Charley Harper's art. Although I found it very challenging using this tool, I was very pleased with the outcome. Much more so, when I then imported my drawing into Photoshop and created the above image.
Additional sketches from Aquariums and books
A fish drawn with biro using hatching and cross hatching.
A crab drawn with coloured pencils.
Penguins drawn with coloured pencils.
An emperor Butterly sketched in various HB pencils.
Below - a collection of sea creatures in pencil, charcoal and fineliner.
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