Another cheetah painting

I sold the cheetah watercolor a few weeks ago out of my etsy store so I decided it would be a good time to draw a replacement. Once again, I looked through my photo references and found something suitable.  I also felt it would help as cat portrait practice.

Cheetah

I started the inking with my nib pen and then adding the watercolor overlay.  It is relatively small at 5″ x 4″ but turned out fairly nicely.  Cheetahs are such elegant animals.  I think I took the photos many years ago at the Cincinnati zoo which has a breeding and research population.  Maybe this month or next I can get up to the Indianapolis zoo.  I have pretty well run through my reference photos and would like to get some new ones.  I look forward to using my digital camera this time around.  It will be so much easier to see if I have something appropriate instead of taking rolls and rolls and not knowing what i have until after they are developed and I am miles and miles away.

Big cat time

I have been a little slow finishing the architectural commission waiting on some more pictures to come in.  I have been itching to get the inks out, but I know that I shouldn’t until I am satisfied with the reference photos.  I decided to go ahead with some smaller watercolor animals in the meantime. It took about 2 days to complete these, mostly because I wanted to let the paper settle back down. Some years ago I bought a watercolor stretcher board set up and I wanted to try it with the animals.  It allows me to thoroughly wet the paper to stretch it and then clips it with screws and metal framing to hold it tightly.  It really worked well with these as there is no buckling after it totally dried.  I did these two on the bottom half and there is room for more if I flip the board around .  All I have to do is cut them apart.

I swear my brain must be turning to jelly because, once again, I forgot the frisket.  Still, I rather like the way these big cats turned out.  I did spritz the paper as I lay down the ink to soften the edges a little bit.  I took the reference photos many years ago when my kids were small.  I think it might have been at the Cincinnati zoo because way back in the recesses of my memory I think I am remembering a cheetah breeding program.  I am planning to go and visit the Indianapolis zoo in May or June and take many more new photos.  It will be so different now using my digital camera.  Before, I had to take rolls upon rolls of film in hopes that I would get a few good shots.  Now I will be able to take a zillion, edit accordingly, and not be concerned with the cost of printing up so many photos.