Process of My Snow Leopard Art
- megumiwat
- Sep 21
- 2 min read
My latest work for sale is a graphite / pencil drawing of snow leopard, or to be more accurate, of moths. Living in a colorful world, and myself loving colorful artworks such as of the impressionists, I was feeling that somehow monochromatic pencil drawings were not "good enough" to sell. I have been experimenting with mediums I like but haven't spent enough time to feel comfortable. I recently had a chance to look at my old work Horse. It still is my favorite work and using my favorite medium which is pencil on paper.
Snow Leopard's idea process was similar to that of Horse's, but the initial idea came from noticing while looking at a book of moths how some moths have patterns like those of snow leopards'. Then to see if there was anything actionable in that recognition, I stared at some images of snow leopards. Then I started to see moths shapes on their faces. I quickly and roughly sketched this idea and sat on it as usual while I worked on other works.
The thing about pencil on paper works, is that of course I love it because I love paper and the soft warm texture pencil creates, but also is easy to casually start a piece. No need for expensive materials. Trying to start a project with expensive materials can be daunting, leading to procrastination. I was not thinking the Snow Leopard was going to be one of my representative piece, so I started to test how I go with my new Palomino Blackwing matte pencil on cartridge paper. I did regret starting with blackwing matte, on cartridge, as I found it to be too soft and the surface of cartridge paper too textured, and started using harder pencils for finer lines.
I have a tendency to make designs symmetrical, though I do not like symmetrical designs. So I decided to add an asymmetrical element to this piece by adding a moon to one eye and a caterpillar on the other. It is thought that moths navigate by the moonlight in the night sky. I used my Sennelier watercolor for the blue.
I always aim for work I'd like to display on my walls as a piece of interior decoration. I am happy to put this up on my wall. The fine art prints (or Giclée) version came out great too! They are printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art Inkjet Paper 285gsm torchon, which has a beautiful texture that emulates handmade papers, using Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 printer. The Snow Leopard prints are available in A3 and A4.
Comments