Well, here we are at the finish line. I have decided to change the name to 'Matriarch' - I thought it simple yet a more discriptive name as the focus is on the Matriarchal elder protecting and watching over the herd.

I have added some dust coming up from the feet of the elephants to dictate movement, as they were looking a little stationary.

This will be released as a limited edition print of 500 at a size of 42 x 30cm for £35.

I believe I just might be venturing further into the world of the Elephants!

Getting there...

We are getting a little closer to the finishing line with this one. I have almost completed the background elephants. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, you can now see how light I plan on making the background. I will probably still need to tweak the contrast a little once the floor is done.

Here is a close up of the rear elephants:



My plan when this is complete is to release it as a Limited Edition Giclee print of 500 copies for around £35.

So, a little more information about myself and what it is that I do. Having spent the last 5 years trying to work as an artist in my spare time. I have recently (and finally) taken the plunge, quit my unbelievably dull job in HR (which I only started 2 year ago for a few weeks until my art business took off!), bought a Golden Retriever puppy for daytime companionship (or, as it turns out, to ensure that I no longer have time to draw), and now work from home as a full time graphite artist.

Now, from what I have seen and researched, there aren't many professional graphite artists around. This may be because once an artist has been asked for the thousandth time "Do you have this in colour?", they all actually switch to a colour medium. Alternatively, there may still be a small gap in the market - obviously, i'm hoping for the latter. The professional graphite artists that do exist are ridiculously talented like Mike Sibley, J D Hillberry, Terry Miller, Armin Mersmann, to name but a few. So, where do I see my work fitting in with theirs? I'll have to think about that one.....

Work in Progress continued

So we are moving along, slowly but surely with the elephants.

I have completed the main three foreground elephants, and will now set about the background elephants. As I mentioned in my last post, the background elephants will be very light compared to the front three. To achieve this, I will switch to harder pencils, only using 2H or harder. This will allow me to maintain a high level of detail.

I am working on this today, so should have another update tomorrow.

Protection - Work in Progress

So, it's day two of the blog and I think i'm probably posting this before anyone has even come across day one, but what the hell. I thought, rather than bore you with background information (which I will come onto shortly), I would throw in a work-in-progress to show you what i'm currently working on.

This is somewhat of a divergence from my usual dogs, street scenes or people, into the world of Wildlife Art. I thought I would begin by tackling something completely different to dogs, i.e. something without fur, so decided on Elephants. This piece will be called Protection - The Mother is stomping towards the viewer to protect its young, while the herd behind goes about its business.

I have only just begun blocking in the darkest areas. I am hoping to achieve a high contrast between the foreground elephants, that will be quite dark and detailed, and the background, which will be quite faded in comparison.

Brinkley, my relatively new puppy, likes to gain my attention whenever I am drawing by chewing my leg, so I apologise if progress is slow with this one. I will try to update over the weekend.