Baby Otter 5

The little otter has acquired some more graphite on its fur and completion of one eye.  The hand on the left side of the composition is beginning to be developed, also.  The fur was coming along nicely, but the hand kept grabbing my attention.  I worried about the smear factor to the bottom portion of the otter, if I went back to working on the left side of the drawing.  So, I broke out from my usual method and decided to keep going on the top portion of the otter's head, while moving  from left to right on the bottom part of the composition.  The trading off should break up the monotony, and the darks can be adjusted simultaneously in the whole composition at the same time.  I have already done a little deepening of shadows in the finished fur. It photographed a little on the washed out side tonight, but you should be able to see where the piece is heading.  :)

Baby Otter Graphite Drawing 4

I did a little more mapping after the last session and decided that it was a big enough area to take to completion.  So, I began the process of blending and removing graphite with a white eraser.  After the fur was defined, more graphite was added to the heavy shadows, followed by some more blending, and finished with more defining of the dark shadows.  My Tuff Stuff eraser stick went into action to pull out a few long whiskers, and the kneaded eraser worked to blur the areas of fur that were out of focus in the composition.  The background was darkened slightly on the left to enhance the light fuzzy fur.  This is the most exciting part of the process for me...  It is the first glimpse of how the little critter is going to look.  :)