Gryphon...a progression drawing...

Gryphon Progression Drawing

   I'm back at it again....my last doll for the "Two Sleeve Art Doll" swap on AFA. (ATC's For All) All of my dolls were of a character from Alice in Wonderland. I had a request to do one of the more obscure character's, so I decided on Gryphon. My only regret is not being able to fit in the wings and lions paws....As always, let start at the beginning, with a pencil sketch...

In the second pic I lined all of my work with a Micron pen. Next, with Derwent Inktense /Watercolor pencils, I colored in the eye and beak. The eye has the color "Baked Earth" at the top of the pupil and "Naples Yellow" They are slightly blended together...(a more impressive look on bigger eyes!) I then took the same yellow and colored the edges of the beak. The whole beak will be yellow, but you can load your brush with water and drag it towards the center. It'll give more depth to your drawing.

When the yellow dried, I took a "Payne's Grey" Inktense pencil and lightly colored in areas that I wanted to have shadows...it was also partly the color of the beak.....I loaded my brush with water and did gentle circles and manipulations to where the color would drag through. The last pic above shows the body being colored in. I used "Baked Earth" again. I went dark on all the edges and also where there are suggestions of feathers. To add shadow, I scribbled some "Payne's Grey" on a separate paper, where I could daub it up with a load brush of water. It's hard to see it in the picture, but those subtle color variations will show to anyone holding the doll in person. ;)

The above shows a better progression of the above explanation.....

Background color can be such a hard choice to make! I settled for Prismacolor's "Tuscan Red" marker. Don't forget the small details! I used a Uniball Signo pen to put a glint in it's eye and a shine on it's beak and feathers. 

Yup, again with my final touches...A quote written in the Uniball pen. Gryphon lined in black, using my Pentel Colorbrush. Distress Ink for the edges...sparkly rays and stipples from my Sakura Stardust pen, Stenciled in "G's"and a good 'ol whack from my date stamper!

Here's the finished work...