Tiger - WIP

This drawing is based on a fabulous photo used with permission from Woxy on deviantart.
This drawing took a very long time to get right and when I finally got it transferred to my working surface, for some reason I was afraid? to start the next step with this one but finally bit the bullet today and just started it.
It's been fully drawn out and transferred to the final platform  which is a 9 x 12 Sheet of Steel Gray Mi-Tientes Pastel paper since March 9th.  I will be using Faber-Castell PITT Pastel Pencils to complete it.
Ha, just realized it's been exactly two months since I finally finished the drawing. 
I haven't done any art on this color of paper and I've only completed two other pieces on colored paper so this is definitely going to be a learning experience for me.  

For some reason the scan of the drawing lightened the paper considerably.  Not sure why.  The second image is closer to the actual color of the paper.


I'm trying to create a step by step with this one so there will be a lot of pictures showing the progress.

Hope you like it!

 
Transferred Drawing:

The transferred drawing

I believe the eyes are the windows to the soul and I always try to capture that from the first pencil stroke.  
I want to get the expression and eyes accurate before I continue on with the rest of the portrait.
If you get the eyes right, the rest of the portrait just flows!
If the eyes are not right, I can't continue with the portrait!

Because I'm working on the Steel Gray paper and the eyes are mostly a light yellow, I started with an underlayer of 101 White and then added 103 Ivory. Marking in the highlight and filling the lower eye area with White then putting a layer of Ivory over the top (avoiding the highlight) and also starting on the white fur around the eye.  I put a little bit of the 177 Walnut Brown around the eye to start getting the shape and depth of the eyes in the very middle of the walnut brown I added a touch of 169 Caput Mortuum.

Next I brought a little 183 Light Yellow Ochre and 182 Brown Ochre into the eyes and added 177 Walnut Brown for around the eye and the under coat on the pupil. 
Using the 183 Light Yellow Ochre and starting at the top half of the eye and bring it down into the mix of the Ivory base gradually getting lighter with your pressure. With the 182 I did a light layer on the top half of the eye and lightly over the pupil. The 177 was then added around the eye and over the pupil. I used the 103 Ivory and the 182 Brown Ochre for blending the colors in a nice gradual gradation.
These eyes are less than an inch across so care had to be taken to not lose the highlight in the eyes.

Adding the color

I outlined the eyes in black, put black on the pupil and started branching out from the eyes. 
I try to create a gradation of light to dark to capture the spherical shape of the eyes and the depth under the eye is created by adding the gradation from dark and moving down the eye.  Stopping at the halfway point with the darker colors and blending them into the light colors.
The darker colors used in the eyes were also 173 Olive Green around the outside of the pupil  and 182 Brown Ochre. 
I added a touch of 140 Light Ultramarine Blue in the highlights to reflect the sky.

The markings are first done in the 177 Walnut Brown and then Black is put on top.  
To further enhance the black stripes, I added a touch of 151 Helioblue.
For the rest of the fur I've used 101 White, 103 Ivory, 183 Light Yellow Ochre, 182 Brown Ochre, 187 Burnt Ochre

Moving out from the eyes

Continually branching out from the eyes.
This is as far as I've gotten today. 

Today's Progress 5/09/2013

Thanks for stopping by :)