Elephant - WIP

 

 Today I decided to do wildlife art as I've been showing my Monday students how to draw elephants.  With this macro view, I put tracing paper over the pencil drawing on 24x18 Canson paper and drew felt tip pen lines so you can see this work in progress.  I have no preconceived notion how or what I'll use to accomplish a decent looking ellie.

 

 

 I decided to work on dry paper, so used masking tape for his ivory tusks, then took 4 colored fine spray mist bottles, spritzing with yellow dilute watercolor, then pink, followed by blue.

 

I let drips run along and down edge of his trunk and it followed the pencil line with no problem all the way to the bottom.

 



Sorry for the poor iPhone photos! In this view, I've painted in his dark eyes with black India ink.  Again, I let paint drip downwards on opposite trunk line.  At this point I spritzed the middle with clear water to let all blend.  Stay tuned for more work in progress.  This may be mixed media. I just can't see painting him in all neutrals the way they are in real life.
All images COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.