A Collection of Elephants
This time of year, when I'm recovering from lots of Holiday preparations and celebrations, and I'm indoors trying to "catch up," I need something to shake me up. Night after night I struggled with decisions re: what to draw and finally decided to play with my many tools (pencils, pens, inks etc) while drawing lots of elephants.
Here are my first 5 - each drawn/"painted" with a different tool.
Elephant 1: Drawn with a Dark Wash Soluble Graphite Pencil by Derwent and painted with clear water.
Elephant 2: Drawn with a Tombow marker, which is water soluble, and painted with clear water
Elephant #3: Cretacolor 9B graphite and Cretacolor white pastel pencils on gray paper
Elephants #4: Pigma micron ink pen and WN watercolors
Elephant #5: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen
I bind Fabriano Artistico 140 lb soft press paper in my handbound watercolor journals. No one believes me, but the Pentel Pocket Brush Ink is completely water soluble on this paper and even drying the ink overnight makes no difference. Here is an elephant drawn with the pen and then painted with clear water!
Comments
Very nice, Shirley. It's an interesting subject to start with and you did it very well. Maybe you could stretch it out to doing 1 or 2 a day throughout the year.
Posted by: Donn | January 22, 2013 8:56 PM
these are such wonderful sketches - you've captured the gentleness of the wonderful giants.
Posted by: meegan | January 23, 2013 6:14 AM
They look great in every medium you've used. I like this idea to pick a thing and draw it with different media or different ways. I frequently sit in the evenings, trying to think of something to draw, and end up drawing nothing because I can't decide.
Posted by: Melisa | January 23, 2013 2:30 PM
Elephants are one of my very favorite animals and your drawings of them are wonderful! Did you have photos to work from or did they come from your imagination? I love them! nancy
Posted by: Nancy | January 23, 2013 2:37 PM
I like all of them! They look like they are in motion and very lively :)
Posted by: Alex Tan | January 23, 2013 3:04 PM
Well, I don't think that you're inside all the time. I read about your touristy adventures! However, the elephants nicely help to fill in the down time!
Posted by: Sandra Torguson | January 24, 2013 12:21 AM
What a great variety of techniques! I love them all.
Posted by: Rebecca J Stahr | January 24, 2013 1:36 PM
Wonderful job with the elephants. I'm assuming you used photos, or do you have a collection of elephants of some sort? I like this idea - I may have to do something similar, as I also can't decide what to draw sometimes and end up drawing nothing.
Posted by: Cheryl | January 25, 2013 11:18 AM
All versions are really good. I wish I can also have that kind of talent and skill. I want to be able to draw anything while using any tool there is. Good job!
Posted by: Matt | January 31, 2013 12:25 PM
Guess what the mascot at U of Alabama is..yes, Al the Elephant. I enjoy your drawings of them!
Posted by: Sara | February 19, 2013 7:47 PM