Titan portrait in progress 9 - Building a paw

Completing Titan’s paws…

Drawing a hand or paw is as complex and detailed as the features of a face, in my opinion.

Upper pic - Going around the edges, building all the edge colors, before filling in all those weird abstract shapes that make up the paw and wrist.

FOR ARTISTS:

I fill those containing edge colors of the paw first, so I can establish the values (lightness-darkness) of the paw colors against that blue-grey paper. Then work inward, filling in the abstract shapes of the paw (the fingers, hand, and wrist)  by connecting them to the colors and values of those edge shapes. I did that same thing when I completed the paw on the left.

Working on a mid-value paper like this “Sky Grey”, means establishing values in relationship to the value of the paper. This paper is what I would call a medium value or “mid-tone” — not a very light value paper color, but on the lighter side of medium-value. The colors in Titan’s paws are both darker and lighter in value than the paper. Putting in the edges of the paw first helps me establish all the colors and values in the “interior” of the paw shape. Note that the values on the top of the paw (Pic 1) are lighter than the paper color, and the values at the bottom of the paw are significantly darker. 

That would be very different if I was working on a white paper (ALL the values would be darker than the paper), or for example a dark green paper (all the values would be lighter than the paper except the darkest browns and black, and the colors would be opposite green on the color wheel).  

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Sky Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 16 x 20 inches.

Portrait of Titan, in progress

Commissioned by Alicia McCarthy.