I made this panther for the IYP swap. My partner likes black panthers and I wanted to take up the challenge since drawing black animals is kind of hard for me.
I sketched it out, then used a Micron to outline it. Then, I set about rendering it. Instead of using black, I used several shades of warm gray. I built those up to create some highlights and shadowing. I also used a Faber-Castell brush pen in white to add the white bits. I like that pen because it’s a brush pen and looks more painted than a gel pen.
This is before I cut it down to size. The colors are more accurate here.
For me, building up with lighter grays works, but that is because with each stroke I am making the last darker with markers. I guess it depends on the paint you are using. I would guess watercolors would have the same effect, but I don’t use them, so this is just a guess. But acrylics would just paint over the last layer due to their opacity. I think the most important thing is to focus on the highlights vs the shadows.
Yep, that’s exactly right. In watercolor you do lots of light washes of transparent color to build up to the values you’re looking for (that’s actually why paper is the most important supply in watercolor, you need something that can handle all the layers). You can also go in right away with a super thick consistency of paint but it’s harder to correct that way.
