Monday, October 5, 2015

Bird - Lion Cub - Rose in Pen and Ink

Great Tit, Annoyed Lion Cub and Rose
7" square, Pentel pocket brush pen on paper.

Used my Stillman & Birn Delta journal again for today's pen drawings. References by "skappy" aka Robert Rongier, posted for Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas.com. I love Robert's photography and he has access to a big cats park, parc des felins or something like that where he often gets great reference photos of large and exotic cats.

Of course this time he outdid himself since both the black panther and the white lion cub were caught with their mouths open! Little Madiba looked very annoyed, her nose scrunched up, eyes squinted, like she's hissing or doing a baby snarl. Utterly adorable given her age and yes, her ears were sitting at that silly Mickey Mouse angle in the photo. You can't make up something like that. Cats just do cute and silly things by definition, because cat, and any species of kitten has inherent adorable cuteness.

I got her in first and then had a go at the dramatic bird in flight from below. Came up with some effective ways to get the feel of those flight feathers spreading. The rose was a challenge too. Fortunately, like cats, I've done roses many times. Started fiddling with shading it and then called a halt before overworking it.

I love the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen but it's still hard to control. I get an occasional shaky signature monogram or passage that gets a thick line because it went thick at the wrong point. Still, the more I use it, the easier I can manage to control the pressure. It's essential for me to pencil under this pen. With my familiar Pigma Microns I can casually sketch the way I would in ballpoint, with other brush pens that works, though penciling does tend to make for accuracy. With this one I am way off if I try sketching just with pen - either I focus on form or on the pen strokes and pressure control. If form's defined already I can just relax and do that, it works well. 

Used the labels to carve into the slightly too large negative space in the middle, not big enough to tuck in another sketch or small enough to ignore. Worked out well. Enjoy! 


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