A girl and her pencils..... The Snow Leopard

Hello and a very happy, very windy Wednesday to you all. I am supposed to be out walking, but l am feeling a bit under the weather and the thought of fighting the gale blowing outside is not at all appealing. It is far nicer to sit with a cup of coffee and tell you all about my latest project in this blog post.
l have wanted to draw a Snow Leopard for a while now, but haven't sourced quite the right photo until this one. I have been using lots of bright colors and I have had quite a craving to use the beautiful, subtle greys that this big cat requires. I love wildlife art and l know that l don't have a single big cat on my website (some of you may remember my last unhappy attempt at a leopard!), l am determined to prove to myself that l can do it.
l have gone for a grey Stonehenge paper here (no idea what shade, as l ordered every color to try, but they came with no labels to identify them). The grey is a perfect undertone for the fur. No white flecks to worry about! And l am using mainly Caran D'Ache Supracolor pencils for this as they have the most gorgeous pale bluey greys.
l am trying a different way of drawing the fur this time, drawing in nearly all of the fur in a very pale shade first of all, then going back and darkening it. It is almost embossing it. I was not happy with the last leopards fur so l had to try a different method. I have used this method in the past and at the minute l am quite happy with the way it is turning out.

I absolutely love the soft grey eyes on this gorgeous leopard. He is taking me an extraordinarily long time to work, but l am really loving doing it. The thing l have found, is to break it down into small sections. A small piece each day that l aim to complete. (Or nearly, I always go back over and over 'finished' areas). This stops a large piece of work like this from feeling overwhelming.

I can see that the dark fur is sitting much more happily amongst the pale fur using this method. I will do a tips page on drawing fur very shortly as it is something people have been asking about. And like most things, there are several ways of achieving similar results.
l am off to try and get a bit more accomplished today so that l have something to show you in my next blog post!
Do let me know if you have any questions, or topics you would like me to discuss. Have the happiest of Wednesday's and most of all have lots of fun drawing!

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