Dani's Exercise Drawing Cont. 3

Dani is getting close enough to 'finished' to post, I think. His fur needs some more definition, but I want to take a change of pace and move to the hand for awhile. He is so much smaller in this composition that the fur can be rather tedious. I found myself mapping values, blending, erasing out highlights, and redefining the darks. Then I would blend some more and start all over. It was becoming an obsessive loop. I had to make myself stop and step back 3 feet and see the whole hamster. This helped me to pick out where I was lacking in my values overall, since at the drawing board I only focus on small areas.

Dani is definitely not as fluffy in this composition. (Although, I still have to put in some whiskers and a few longer hairs.) This fact is due to the hour long run he had in his ball prior to the photo. Well, not really an hour long... He has a tendency to find a corner of the room and hide out cleaning himself, or sit dreaming about his sunflower seeds, or wonder if my son has added some new bedding to his cage. You know the usual hamster thoughts! Trust me, this hamster will NEVER be accused of over exerting himself. Enough gossip about the little guy, I had better get back to the drawing board...