Zebra Scratchboard

 



Well off on a new scratchboard adventure, going to do Gary Jones photo from Paint my Photo, if you went to the original photo at http://paintmyphoto.ning.com/photo/zebra-close-up you would see that I flipped the image - don't know why, just thought I liked it better that way and it wouldn't look like everyone else who has done a pic from this photo.  Also I am right-handed and I think that this would benefit the natural rhythm of the strokes on the scratchboard. 
I went absolutely cross eyed when I drew this out and am already finding that I am changing up the stripes as I am working them.  Just trying to focus on one spot and work out.  Think too this is going to take a lot of freelance drawing as I definitely lost form when I transfered from original drawing to the board. 
You can see too that I looked up another reference photo of the eye so that I could put some life and color into it, also added the eye lashes - my artistic liberty I guess.  I love to start my animal pictures with the eyes. 
I am not sure however that I will add in the browns and siennas on this picture as that may just be indigenous to this type of zebra, not all other reference photos have I show so much brown. There is however a lot of shading that is needed in this photo and right now starting out with CP but might switch it up to watered down ink if I need to go darker as I am not seeing what little shading I did add around the eye on this picture.  But before I go crazy I am going to scan the board in and see if it shows up better that way.
Am going to the Birmingham zoo soon so will note the coloration on their zebras - good thing about color is it can be added later if I don't put on the sealing spray. 
This is a larger piece, 11"x14", same as the Golden Eagle, but lots more scratching will be required on this piece so expect it to take some time as I am feeling my way with this short haired critter.
Thanks or stopping by and have a great painting week.  All comments and critiques from second pairs of eyes are appreciated.

Comments

Log Cabin Studio said…
It looks like you are off to a great start.
April 28, 2014 at 5:27 PM
hmuxo said…
This is going to be a gorgeous piece, Nelvia! Zebras are SO beautiful and the perfect subject!!
April 28, 2014 at 10:35 PM
Jane said…
The eye is already fantastic, you are off to a wonderful piece , looking forward to seeing the progress !
April 29, 2014 at 11:29 AM
Nelvia said…
Thanks C, always feel good and strong in the beginning, just fall apart as I get further into it!!!
April 30, 2014 at 4:46 PM
Nelvia said…
I thought zebras would be perfect. I am thanking my lucky stars I am just doing one and not a here of the. Having stripe problems, like which is the right stripe and is it black or white
April 30, 2014 at 4:47 PM
Nelvia said…
Hi Jane, thanks for checking. I love to have the eye looking back at me, adds immediate life I think to,the picture.
April 30, 2014 at 4:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bold woman's portrait

Image
Bold Ok, for today's portrait I went out of the box and decided to try a different look and approach. This is on watercolor paper, I applied a layer of paper collate over it (you can see that some of it started lifting - so got to use more medium to glue it next time)  Anyway then I tried to leave part of that under collage showing, even in the face.  Went back in and applied several more light lawyers of transparent and opaque paint and then put in the hair using my dagger bus.   Gosh that brush makes hair so much easier While this might not the best example what are your thoughts to taking portraits this more dynamic direction? Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more

Her Highness mixed media woman portrait

Image
Her Highness   I just absolutely loved the expression on this lady and knew I wanted to try to capture her elegance and serenity.  I knew that I didn't want an exact portrait and decided to try another mixed media piece.    I added blobs of paint and used my large scraper to make the areas of color.  Just put paint on a piece of watercolor paper.  Then I inscribed and mixed the colors together with the end of my brush and got all the wavy lines (in real life they actually stand up so there is a 3D effect to the background).  Where I thought I wanted the face I really scraped most of the paint off, and ended up with color blotches and tones, and if you look in the forehead you can sort of see the design that was left.  I thought it would add some variance to the skin tones. I also want to keep her very soft so I tried to stay in the pastel tones, even with the lips.   Once I got shadows and lights added in, and went over it with some skin tone and more blue colors I let
Read more

In The Garden acrylic painting Redo

Image
In The Garden Original painting Well, thankfully I have some folks who tell me what they think.  I value their objective opinions very much and appreciate that they feel strongly enough to tell me when they feel something is off.  In the original painting no one liked the addition of the yellow flower, and felt it pulled the eye and overshadowed the focal point.   Well, I sat on it a bit and starting playing with how I could work it back into the composition.  I wanted the third flower, but I couldn't just really dull down the yellow.  As you an see I ended up making it darker in shadows and then burying it into the foliage.  I like it better because it now looks, to me, like it is part of the picture instead of just being put on in the corner.  Moral of the story, fix it first because it is hard to come in and match colors later. What do you think of the changes - for better or worse? Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.
Read more