Wednesday, May 21, 2014


A Spring Snow

Drawing a Snow Leopard

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are available for purchase in my Etys shop at: 
Snow Leopard. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

The ultimate cool cat! The Snow Leopard is one of those animals that looks too beautiful to be true. Almost like an apparition, it is extremely elusive and secretive, lives in remote mountainous regions, and is incredibly well camouflaged which makes it very hard to see. Sadly it is also extremely endangered with estimates of only 4,000 to 7,000 left in the wild today. In 2008 it was placed on the Red List of threatened species. For all those reasons I just had to add this majestic cat to my list of "Big Cat" drawings. It has always been one of my favorites.


Snow Leopard. original photograph by Anthony Festa

The inspiration for this drawing came directly from an amazing photograph that Anthony Festa took of a Snow Leopard. Anthony is a friend and amazing photographer. He does landscape, nature, and wildlife photography and his work is stunning! He graciously gave me permission to use his work as reference. You can see and purchase his photos on his website at selectimagesphotographycom. Thanks again Anthony for you generosity! The only thing I decided to change from the photo was that to Snow Leopard's look appeared slightly timid to me, so I tried to achieve a more confident stare and demeanor. I hope I was successful.

This time I took a lot more photos as I progressed through the drawing. Since people have been asking me more about my working process I thought more pictures will make it clearer. On this piece I started with a fine pencil sketch of the basic outline of the Leopard. After that the pencil is exchanged for my pen. It's all pen work from this point on. I usually always start some where on the animals face. This gives me the opportunity to breath life into the drawing, and then I slowly expand to finish the overall body. Drawing fur has always been a challenge for me. I feel I gained some knowledge this go around. I work from light to dark and begin by applying very little pressure to the pen as I let it glide across the paper. This let me draw the finest of lines. To achieve the darker areas I slowly build up those areas with layers of lines. After I have finished the inking of the animal I start brushing in the background with india ink. I love cutting out the animal. It almost feels like creating a sculpture to me. I do this with Pro Art India Ink. It's very thick and covers the papers quickly. I've noticed that different bottles have different consistencies of thickness, so I mix them to get that perfect flow. Thanks again for dropping by, and taking the time to visit my blog! It's onto the next animal for me!

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process

















Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 
for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

Friday, May 9, 2014


Tapir-ing Off

Drawing a Baby Tapir

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 
for purchase in my Etys shop at: 
Baby Tapir. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

When it comes to my list of favorite animals it starts with 1) Rhino, 2) Elephant, and 3) tapir. I love animals that look like they've lived on the planet since the dinosaurs ruled, and these three creatures definitely fit that role perfectly. The tapir showed up about 20-30 million years ago, and are actually decedents of rhinoceroses and horses. That's pretty cool fact!

Something that always struck me about the tapir is the contrasting look between an adult tapir and the infant. The infant tapir has an incredible camouflage spot pattern that is so unique and only last during infancy, while the adult has a very plain looking hide. The  detailed patterning hinds the baby from predators, and is lost as the tapir matures. Naturally I had to draw a baby. Their extremely cool looking black and white pattern on the baby tapir just screamed "draw me"!

Besides my aquatic creatures, this was one of my first full body animal drawings. I always find it challenging to draw the whole animal since so much of my art focuses in on the extreme detail of the animals features. But this time it just worked so well. I hope to do a whole series of full body animals too, so I'll consider this one the first in a series.


Today, all four species of tapir are considered to be endangered. This is mainly due to deforestation and habitat loss, and over hunting of tapirs by humans.

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process








Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 
for purchase in my Etys shop at: