Today is the second in a series of peeks into my sketchbooks. In honour of Earth Week, I’m posting some of my animal drawings that I’ve done over the last year. Here are some hoofed mammals, all drawn for Zooly Art Challenge prompts.
Greater Kudu: I could only find one photo reference for a running kudu, and I really wanted to do an action pose. Maybe they are too fast for the photographers… or maybe they just don’t run much and spend all their time hanging out looking regal. Watercolour and ink.Mountain Goat: I was photographing these images for Instagram, and sometimes finding the light to be less then ideal (yes, I could have scanned them, but I was lazy!) So I played with this in Photoshop, using the greyness of the low-light conditions as a kind of toned paper, and added highlights. I liked the effect better than the original sketch! Ink and blue pencil.I’ve always loved the gentle look of mules’ faces. Never known one personally; someday I’ll have to correct that lack. Done at the Victoria Folk Music Society during a lovely evening of live music by my friends Rick Van Krugel and Paddy Hernon. This fellow’s face now contains my memories of their songs and tunes, stuck to paper with pencil dust! Coloured Pencil.Muntjacs are odd little deer from Southeast Asia, although they have been introduced (and become invasive in some areas) all over the world. They have tusks on their upper jaw, like Chinese Water Deer, which sometimes protrude (not on the photo I did this one from, though) and make them look like vampire deer! Coloured Pencil.I started filling a whole page with ponies; since the Zooly prompt that week was “pony” and I had just started a daily drawing thing, I thought that would be a good way to stretch the ideas over a few days. There are so many kinds of ponies in the world! Graphite Pencil and Ink.And here’s the whole page. It only took me four days to fill it up, so I moved on to something else. I had a great time filling up the spaces with the tiny gesture drawings!
Karen Gillmore Art 