Two Cats And A Meerkat

A few recent drawings that I have done. The 2 cats are named Zook and Zena and the meerkat is from a photo I took at the San Diego Zoo. The meerkat was from a direct light source, the sun, creating nice clean light and dark shapes. Zook too was direct lighting from the sun, but it appears to be cloudy, as the lighting looks more diffused, creating softer shadows. Zena was the most difficult. She is being lit from behind by the sun, so I am assuming that her face is all light from bounced light. There were a lot subtlety going on in the lighting, making it hard to figure out. When you understand structure and form in general, and you understand what is going on in what you are drawing, it makes handing difficult lighting situations much easier.

Spike The Parrot

My second drawing of a parrot, this one though is a pet from someone I know. Similar to my drawing of Grizzly, there is no direct light source on this bird. From the photograph I drew this from, it appears to be a bright sunny day, however the parrot is in shadow, so all the light that is hitting it is from reflected light. I guess you could still say that it is a direct light source, being that its bounced light from a surface, its just a bit softer than you would expect from being directly light from the sun. It is good eye and brain practice to draw from different types of lighting. Sometimes you may even find it easier. Many times when I have done a drawing from life and we set the lighting up differently, the shapes and edges become clearer to me, making it easier for me to draw them.

More Dogs, Arf!

Two dog drawings that I have finished recently, Grizzly and I believe the other is named Abba. I am quite happy with the drawing of Grizzly, because it was done from a photo with overcast lighting. Overcast lighting (cloudy day) there is no direct light source, shadows tend to be soft and non existent, making it difficult to see form. A lot of highly trained artists love to use overcast lighting for the challenge it provides. This is my first attempt at drawing something in overcast lighting and I am happy with my results.