Tuesday 14 February 2012

CHEETAH PAINTING IN STAGES
Finished
Sun 19th Feb. In the final stage it came together quite quickly.
Pastels on velour. 31cm x 24cm.
For sale
 
Cheetah phase 3
 Sat 18th Feb, a little more done on the fur detail.  Quite a way to go yet but I'm still happy with the progress.

Cheetah phase 2.
This weekend (11th & 12th Feb), I managed to do some more.  Building up under-shades and colour depth and starting on the fur detail.  It is a long, painstaking job drawing in almost every hair but I am quite pleased with the way it is coming together.
I was horrified to find that one of my cats had scratched it.  He is very young and enthusiastic and climbs on everything, including my easel!!  However, the velour surface is quite forgiving and I managed to rescue it.  The scratches wont be visible when it's finished.

Cheetah phase 1.
I started this painting on 5th February.  I found a superb photo by Gary Jones and decided to try painting it.  I am using one of my favourite mediums, Pastels.  I have three sets of pastels by different manufacturers:
Derwent pastel pencils
Faber Castel pastel sticks
Inscribe pastel sticks
I am painting onto Clairfontaine Velour, specially designed for pastels.
I used it once before to paint a young lioness and loved the way it holds the pastel and allows a lot of detail to be built up in layers.  It is especially good for long fur.


I like to start with the eyes because they are the most important part.  If they go wrong I have to start again so no point doing too much of anything else!

2 comments:

  1. Great to 'see' (so used to your Siamese cat avatar) :o) you in the world of blogging Eunice!
    Your Cheetah looks wonderful! I am with you on this ... if the eye isn't right there is no point in going on. Lately I see a lot of people leave the eye to last. I need to do the eye to 'connect' with my subject. tc :)

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  2. I would love to use Pastels, Eunice. I have played around with them a few times but never attempted anything seriously ... they are mucky sticks in my hands. Your Cheetah is wonderful and I do love to see a WIP, thank you for sharing this! :)

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