Huh. I really had no idea where to even begin, so I started with the eyes. I tried some colored fine liners, but they’re not exactly blendable. Sadly, a fact discovered too late to bring any dimension to either pair. Fail to plan and all that jazz. Kinda looks like Gretchen’s hairy cousin given the Muppet treatment. The markers worked ok, but it lacks definition. Not sure what to do about that.
I picked up a new ink book that’s brush focused. I still have some basics to finish in the other workbook, so for now I’m just giving it a read-through. Turned out to be a timely reminder. Rule #1 – You cannot fear failure and continue to make progress. So I threw more ink at it; if I’m going to fail, may as well fail big. Still not awesome but somewhat better defined.
And now I can’t stop fiddling with it. There is something liberating about stop thinking so hard and just try it. I get that strokes should be mindful, but they also need to flow or everything is a herky-jerky jumble. Speaking of, the bristles that got cut off by the tape were making my left eye twitch, so used the brush pen to reapply them.
I also tried to bring more focus to where the mandibles come together and at least imply the bristles. Had I done them first, I could have used the color more effectively, but has given me some ideas and things to work on. Still looks more like Sam the Eagle than I’d like, but I really am done this time. I need to start on today’s subject.
