Updates

I was notified that my scratchboard and ink piece of a white tiger,  titled "The Interrupted Drink", won Viewer's Choice at the Bennington Center for the Arts "Art of the Animal Kingdom XVI".  Thanks to all who voted for my piece!  It was totally unexpected to me :)



"The Interrupted Drink" - Original Available

















Here is an update on "Comin' At Ya" the big horse piece that I am working on (36"x24").  Still a long ways to go.



"Comin' At Ya" - WIP - 36"x24"























And I have also started a new piece titled "Sibling Rivalry" sized 16"x20".  As you may figure by the title (and random tooth) there will be a 2nd wolf in the image

"Sibling Rivalry" - WIP - 16"x20"

"The Interuped Drink" completed

Just in time to sign it with the years 2009 I am happy to finish Raja's piece and very pleased with how it came out.  It has a subtle dark green background that is quite difficult to see in this photo.  I am going to wait to put a zoomify image on my web site until I get a scan or better photo of the work that shows the background more correctly. The values and colors on the cat are about correct.  Thanks for following along... and on to the next piece and a new year!!

The Interrupeted Drink- the start of adding color (in real life)

I'm not quite done with the color and for some reason a lot of the reddish brown areas are showing really light, but the eyes look about right. I'll try to finish it by the end of the weekend and hopefully get a chance to get a more accurate photo.  The real thing is somewhere between this image and the photoshopped version, but I think I will leave the colors a bit more subdued than the photoshop version.

Closer

And even closer...

"The Interrupted Drink" and photoshopping color

 am almost done with the black and white portion of Raja.  I have decided to call it "The Interrupted Drink". I will be coloring the eyes and adding subtle color throughout the rest of the board as well.  I have added more water drops and toned down the chest area as well.  I still have some 'tweeking' to do in a few areas, but overall the black and white scratching is close to complete.  I have deviated from my photo reference a moderate amount and gone off of a vision in my head, which is not always a good idea.  At times the way it looks in my head is not how it turns out, but overall I am fairly pleased with the result so far.  I chose to add the water to add more visual interest to the work as well as tell more of a story than just a tiger head portrait. 

Curious how the water drops are done?  Here is a closer look:

Often (almost always) when I am planning on coloring a piece I do it first in photoshop to see how I want to get it to look.  It helps me also figure out what colors of ink I will need to mix up, and how strong or diluted I want them to be.  In this case Raja actually has quite a lot of light reddish brown fur on his face and around some of his stripes.  I will use the ink quite diluted for these areas, as I don't want to overpower the white.  I will ink, then re scratch several layers.  So while the photoshop version won't be exactly how the color version will end up being it does give me a good idea of where I am going and the colors I will need to get there.  Here is my photoshop mock up of Raja with colored eyes and fur.

Often when coloring a work you need to scratch it lighter than if you were going to leave it a black and white work.  I can now tell from my mock up in photoshop a few areas that I will need to take lighter than I have them too (such as the chest that I just darkened :D)  (and the green in the background I am not sure about yet, we'll see)

Raja continued

More progress and now I need to actually go get some stuff done for the rest of the day (maybe some Christmas shopping), but might have more time tonight. I just found out the tiger's name is Raja.

And a couple of close ups. Only one side has whiskers at this point, because I still have to lay in values of the underfur that the whiskers will go over. I also never noticed until working on this that white tigers have black noses, but normal orange tigers often have pink pigment on portions of their nose!

Here kitty, kitty

My internet decided to go down yesterday afternoon and just got it back... yeah! I can't get by without my internet fixes!  Without the distraction of the internet I was able to make quite a bit of progress on my tiger. 

I am thinking about coloring it, but since he is a white tiger the color would be subtle. I am changing the composition a bit from my reference too, so have to see how it all works out.

Anyways a photo from yesterday and another update from this afternoon.

A close up from when I took the picture yesterday (top image)

White Tiger

I started a new piece yesterday of a white tiger.  He is also from references I took at Rolling Hills when there for the SAA opening.  I have to inquire to remember his name.

At any rate white animals are is many ways much more difficult than darker ones in scratchboard, as well as more time consuming.  When you look at how white hair layers the shadow left by the hairs on top is only a few shades lighter than the white itself.  Since I am scratching away black it often looks too harsh, which means many more layers of hair must be added to get the look I desire. 

I am quite pleased with how it is progressing and should have tomorrow morning to work on it.  I am looking for a good title, so if you think of one let me know!