Evolution of a Clouded Leopard

Since I've humoured you all in the past with photos of my paintings/drawings in their various states of completion, I thought some of you might appreciate seeing a W.I.P. (Work In Progress). This whole exercise might in fact, prove to be completely boring to the rest of you, but I enjoy seeing the steps through which other artists take to complete their work, so maybe you will too. Rest assured, the evolution of this painting is far from smooth; my lack of experience seems so painfully evident every time I have to scrub over what I've already done. But you should be able to get the idea.

This is Felis Nebulosa, commonly known as the Clouded Leopard, native to Southeast Asia. For a little background info, its name is a reference to the shape of its spots, which are dark-edged ellipses that allegedly resemble clouds. It's highly arboreal; almost squirrel-like in its ability to maneuver through the trees, and although it's a bit of a light-weight (averaging 33 to 50 lb) in relation to it's body size it has the longest canine teeth of any living feline. In other words, I think it's pretty cool.

In the first step, I laid down a basic sketch of the reference photo on my board (I'm not using canvas for this one because I don't like its "tooth", the woven texture does not lend itself too well to the detail I try to accomplish).

The second step was to block out all my negative space. I decided to put the cat against a completely dark background to emphasise its secretive nature. I also painted in the darkest areas that would later define the cat's spots.

Now for some color. This is where things become really interesting, and really frustrating for me. I'm terrible at mixing color!! It's not that I can't tell when shades match, rather it's that I don't know how to make 2 + 2 = 4. So the tones of the whole thing look altogether "off" from the reference photo. Hopefully the class I plan on taking this summer will help to remedy my problem...



That is as far I've gotten so far. Now that I'm finished with the more "rough" stages, the process will speed up a bit since I enjoy the detail work far more. I'll be sure to post updates as the work progresses.

This (http://www.onlineartdemos.co.uk/pages/print_pages/leopard_print.htm) is an excellant example of the realism I would like to acheive. If it is even possible remains to be seen.