Thursday, February 5, 2015

Squirrel Watcher

Funny but this sketch and subject behind it brings to mind the Song "Girl Watcher" and the tune has been stuck in my head all day.

In my last post I shared where I had taken a course by Marc Taro Holmes - Sketching People in Motion.  In addition to that course, I decided to take another called Picture Book Illustration - Animal Characters with Eric Johnson.  His course is using mixed media to create story book characters for children.

Taking a little bit from each course, I decided to do this sketch of Miya and her favorite outdoor past time..............watching squirrels.  The position I captured her in is her normal stance every time she goes out back.  There's one squirrel that will come within a foot or so from her and they will stare at one another for what seems like forever. 

Here are the steps I chose to use for this quick sketch......

Quick pencil sketch using a 2H pencil.  Sketched in the Strathmore Soft Cover sketchbook.


Unsure of just what I wanted to do, I decided to scan and print off on inkjet paper where I worked my next step adding ink using a Micron 005.


 I scanned a second time, printing off on another sheet of paper and worked a layer of watercolor using W&N watercolors.  This proved to be a bit challenging due to the paper buckling on me but it worked out OK. 


Again I scanned and printed what I had done so far and then took Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils for deeper tones and detailing.   I also used a white fine sharpie marker to add back in some whites.

As I'm posting this, I notice for some reason the scanner didn't pick up all the colors in this final scan (particularly the colors behind the fence area).   The background behind the fence should look more like the one right above.  :-/ 


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