Drowsy Elephant

6x6 watercolor and ink using STA Lictin pen 0.3 and Gansai Tambi graphite paints by Kuretake. This is on Masters Touch 80 lb paper in sketchbook done a few days ago. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Marching Elephant

7x9 Tombow brush pens using portrait palette set in Masters Touch sketchbook 80 lb paper, done last month while out of town. After the watersoluble ink was in, I used a rigger brush and water to blend the colors somewhat of the marching elephant. COPYRIGHT 2024 Kay Smith

Bold Elephant

Mixed media on 8.25×11 Crescent matboard done today in about 1 hour. After a pencil sketch I went over the lines using a wooden chopstick and black India ink. When dry, I wet his hide then sprinkled grey and dark brown Brusho. When that dried, I sprayed Tim Holtz’ Distress ink stain in Old Photo. Background is all gouache and white gel pen for tiny twigs or grasses. I was anxious to try Brusho and the spray ink together to see what texture developed and really do like it. A Uniball 207 rollerball pen added some lines to him and other dark areas. COPYRIGHT 2022 Kay Smith

Elephant Eyes

24x18 watercolor on 140 lb cold press paper done with spicing up neutrals usually put into play for these type animals.  Eyes are a mix of black India ink.  One can feel the dust swirling around this massive beast. It was sketched and painted from an earlier drawing.  A WIP for this one can be seen on this blog 3-14-14.
COPYRIGHT Kay Smith.

#InkTober day 25 ~ Zoo Elephants

9x12 watercolor with walnut ink on Canson 140 lb cold press paper; other colors used were raw umber and Payne's grey.  Sketch done with Staedtler 0.3 pigment liner pen in black.  Today is the 25th day of  #InkTober (October), so only 6 days left.  This limited palette I think captured the elephant hide hues well and walnut ink provided the dusty clouds.
Image COPYRIGHT 2016 Kay Smith.

Elephant Eyes - WIP to finished

Elephant Eyes 24x18 watercolor, finished late today and ready to go! This was a fun one to do and I hope to watch as seen in the work in progress (WIP) steps below.

Detail of right eye and right tusk.  I used indigo blue and wetly dropped in quin burnt orange, manganese blue, UB, along with Peachy Keen by Cheap Joe's Art Stuff (American Journey paints).

Right tusk detail to show the amount of shading done with the blues plus QBO pigments.

Detail of his left tusk with color added, a glaze of quin gold, letting indigo mix into wet area underneath for shadow tones.

 

View of entire piece with masking tape removed from both tusks, which we know are white but not to leave them untouched...Right shoulder is a mix of Peachy Keen with lines of UB put in fairly wet.  More lines added for textural wrinkles and folds. His left eye needs more work!

More darks added to his right ear fold shadow.  Small lines put in for cracks and folds of his hide.

His left side is worked on down to end of paper.  The only background will be our right mid-to lower side which I'll do as a dust storm, and only have to look outside for a model for blowing sand.
Images COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Tusk Time elephant

6x6 watercolor over ink line sketch with Micron 01 pen, drawn and painted yesterday on Masters 70 lb paper.  I like how this paper accepts color splotches; it does not blend as traditional paper so never know what I'm going to get as an end result, such as with this zoo elephant.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2013 Kay Smith.