DRAWING PROCESS
Materials and tools:
-Derwent Charcoal pencils , Dark, Medium and Light.
-A2 220gsm Winsor and Newton Cartridge paper
-Putty eraser
-Rotring propelling pencil (HB)
-Derwent Charcoal Pencils, Dark, Medium and Light tones. (Normal charcoal sticks could not achieve the matt black I wanted)
-Scalpel
-Pencil sharpener
-Fixative
-Paper stubs
Reference:
-A photo by Eddie Evans
The project took about 25 - 30 hours from start to finish in just over a week. The initial outline drawing took about 5 hours, the accuracy of which is crucial to the appearance and proportions of the original. I only use pencil, paper and the original photograph to do this - no pantographs, camera obscura or image projector devices.
The layout:
1. Charcoal.
I wanted to limit the use of fixative until I had finished the picture as charcoal is easy to smudge and dust from the drawing process may need to be cleaned up but I wanted to retain the option of using an eraser to enhance the fur effect. Once fixed it is very difficult short of digging the paper up - a technique for another day?
The use of charcoal pencils was new as I wanted to have a sharp but very matt finish, something that pencil does not provide. I used 1-1/2 Dark pencils and 1/2 a Medium and Light to achieve the effect I wanted.
2. Start - eyes.
I got going on the eyes at the centre of the picture as I did not want to be leaning over the rest of the work later on. Once done I did not return to them. It gave the picture an instant character as the Tiger emerged from the misty white of the paper over the next week.
3. Face:
4. Outlining and tone
5. Whiskers The big challenge, how to represent whiskers? I wanted to avoid using paint or pastel white as they add a blue tint - it would also be a cop-out. I also considered masking fluid, but with the shops being closed (I did this over Christmas 2010) there was not even the opportunity to get some and experiment. My solution was marking the edges with the Light charcoal pencil as it was the firmer of the materials so gave a sharp edge and ground to build on.
It was like drawing in the negative space. It took a lot of sharpening and the scalpel was the only option as the sharpener kept snapping the tips off.
The space behind the whiskers was an interesting area as it needed to be a dark tone to give depth. Pencil stubs were useful, I wore 3 out!
I'm now going slightly nuts......it took about 2 days of work to get it right; and now the chin needed doing. The putty eraser now came in to its own and was not just used to lighten the whiskers but add other effects to the mane and fur - especially on the nose.
I toned the chest down to push in to shadow more to give the picture a better atmosphere. Darkening the background was a welcome distraction from the detail work. Lots of looking at about 1m from the picture adding small bits and pieces here and there.
Finished - ready for framing
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