Portrait of Young Wolf Finished

Portrait of Young Wolf Finished

I have finished the portrait of the young wolf. The actual drawing took me 47 hours although, as I took the photo in November 1999 you could say it took me 19 years.

When I met this lovely wolf he was 6 months old and he was being held on a lead. I was so honoured that he liked me. He took hold of my wrist very gently in his mouth. It was the highlight of my life. After he was put back into the enclosure with the other wolves he kept jumping against the wire mesh fencing towards me and I got splattered with mud all over my jacket from the wolf enclosure. The result was that when I got home next day my own dog wouldn’t come near me! It was quite a while before the smell wore off my jacket and Trixie got back to normal. 

Back in those days, I had an SLR camera and I had to wait for the film to be developed before I knew if I had any reasonable photos. I tried to paint a portrait in pastel from the above pose but it coincided with the time I went down with post-polio syndrome and I had to give up artwork altogether for a while. 

I have always wanted to get back to doing a portrait from this photo, but it got put away in such a safe place that I couldn’t find it! When I did find it I looked at it and thought how soft focus it is compared to the sharp, see-every-hair photos that I can take with my latest DSLR. It was hard to see his hind feet because they were the same colour as the autumn leaves that he was standing in. That is why the drawing took so long. I did my best. Such a darling animal merited it. 

Because of the poor quality of the photo, I chose to draw a small portrait in graphite using mechanical pencils with different grades of lead from 2B to 3H. I draw on graphic film because it is “dimensionally stable” or, to put it another way, it stays flat in a humid atmosphere. The Eden Valley, where I live, is frequently humid. In fact I remember one day I was out in the rain and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. 

I have two more photos of the wolf that I would like to use as reference for portraits. In one he is lying in the dead leaves so I will have to do that one in colour. Maybe coloured pencils?

Work in Progress: Young Wolf

Work in Progress: Young Wolf

It is a long time since I took the photos of this young wolf. He was 6 months old at the time and absolutely delightful. I started his portrait in pastel at the time but then post polio syndrome hit me and I wasn’t able to continue. It was a few years before I recovered sufficiently to take up drawing again. 

But I have always wanted to do this portrait and have started a couple of attempts at it. Now I am determined to draw him at last. 

I am drawing him in mechanical pencil on graphic film as part of a series for an exhibition. As these drawings are small, I can draw sitting on the sofa of an evening. The only extra equipment that I need is something to quickly protect the current drawing from any cat who suddenly decides that they want to jump onto my lap. I bought a pad in a plastic folder that has 5 extra pockets to hold future drawings ready set up. 

I started this drawing a while ago. I had been using a 4B clutch pencil and, now that I have picked it up again, I see that I had made it too dark. So I have been working hard with putty rubber and the Tombow MONO zero eraser and I am happy now with the ear on the left and nearly happy with the top of his head. I drew Jasper’s portrait mainly with a 0.3 2B mechanical pencil and a 0.3 2H mechanical pencil on the “white” areas, so I am blending in the erased areas of this wolf portrait with the 0.3 2H mechanical pencil. 

The portrait of Jasper is finished but I haven’t scanned it yet. 

My last blog showed a photo of my dreadful tiling. I spent Christmas, with much appreciated help from my son, building a kitchen unit and moving furniture upstairs and downstairs. My kitchen is already working better for me though there are still problems to solve. One is the door to the unit. I found the door took up too much room when it was open and also I had trouble with the hinges. I am thinking of sawing the door in half vertically and hinging it so it will be a bifold door. 

The point of the unit is to hold the cat litter trays away from the dogs. The cats are happy with it so that is promising. The top shelf is holding the cat food and a spare bag of cat litter so it is looking promising. 

It would have been nice to start the New Year with everything organised. But it is much easier to cook my dinner in there and that is great. I was so tired of living on sandwiches!

And you can’t see how bad the tiling is. 

(See Fliss in the cardboard box rather than one of the beds! Typical cat.)

Wolf with cubs in her den drawn in pen and ink.

I have been moving my art studio downstairs and I had buried my scanner under a heap of paper which is why I have only just been able to scan this 6 x 4 inch pen and ink drawing of a wolf with her cubs in a den under tree roots. 

I have wanted to do this subject for a long time and eventually I decided that I must do it now. It is the one subject that I would regret if I had not done it at the end of my life. Now I can look for another subject to inspire me, but first I am going to do another larger version of the wolf den in colour. 

I love working in pen and ink. I recently bought a second Platinum fountain pen to use with waterproof carbon ink. Yes these pens are designed with a cap that stops them from drying up though it is necessary to use it every day or so with the carbon ink. I bought the pen with the ultra fine nib for my small drawings. I love the feel of the pen in my hand and the delicate lines that it can produce. 

I needed fine lines and control to draw the wolf and her cubs. The cubs in particular were a huddle of legs and noses. It was difficult to sort them out. I think there are four cubs there. It may have helped if I coloured the tongues pink but I thought that would look silly. 

Work in progress: The Wolf Den

The Wolf Den work in progress 6 x 4 inches 

It may be small but there is a lot of work in this pen and ink of a wolf and her cubs in a den under tree roots. So I am showing the work in progress. 

I am drawing it behind the barricade that fends off the cat. But today he peeped round the back of the barricade to see what I was doing. I was getting ready to protect the drawing when he kind of sniffed and went back to sleep. 

I have wanted to do a drawing or painting of the wolf den for many years but I deferred it because I had commissions. Eventually that old question came up: if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you regret not doing. For me the answer was so clear. I would most regret not having done this subject. 

The second thing was that I bought a new "best" pen so I bought some carbon ink cartridges for my old best pen and my hand was itching to draw with it. That is why I have started with a pen and ink of the subject. 

I have also bought an Ampersand claybord to do a painted version. But that will have to wait until the itch to use my pen stops nagging at my hand. 

A new Wolf

I enjoy drawing wolves. They are much easier than members of the cat family because their fur is coarser. I don't know if it is really coarser. Perhaps I should compare my dogs' hair with my cats' hair under a microscope. But I can certainly get away with a rougher drawing when I do a wolf. 

This is a 6x4 inch pen and ink drawing. The tongue and eyes are coloured using Caran d'Ache Luminance coloured pencils which are lightfast. 

I am now taking a break from pen and inks to finish a series of coloured pencil studies of the horse chestnut tree through the year. I started the series last year and I have a deadline of the 23rd of October when I want to display the group of drawings at a Craft Fair I am taking part in. 

Dufton Art in the Hills exhibition

I entered four artworks into the Dufton Art in the Hills exhibition. 

One was my self portrait which I did last year. I wanted to show off how good I am at getting a good likeness so it was important for me to go to the private view. 

While I was there, my pen and ink of a Wolf was sold. It is the first time I have ever had a red sold spot next to one of my artworks at an exhibition. It was nice to meet the lady who had liked my drawing enough to buy it. 

The other drawings were pen and ink with touches of coloured pencil too.

The man in the next drawing is my son. He has a little bit of coloured pencil to tint his face. I have found an even better reference photo of him talking to his horse so I plan to do one from that one day. 

The only touch of colour in the mare's head at the bottom is her eye. 

I have to have a break from pen and inks because I have an important portrait to do which I am keeping private.