The Ubuntu Wildlife Sanctuary https://ubuntuwild.com/ is home to large cats that have been rescued from zoological parks and private collections that have become distressed. The animals are too old or disabled to be introduced to the wild and so require care for their remaining life span. Ubuntu provide a suitable facility.
I have been spending some time on the farm providing assistance in the development of educational walking trails. In my visits there is an opportunity to photograph the animals. On my last visit I took a picture of a female tiger. My picture was taken through a tiger proof fence and was not the most photogenic image of a tiger around. I decided to use the photograph to practice a method called planar portraiture.
A friend of mine, Hilary Adams, bought me a subscription to a Domestika online course in planar portraiture. It was a farewell gift when I left Cape Town. I followed the course and decided to test out some of what I learned to capture the tiger image on paper.
My process started by printing the photograph out on A4 paper and then using a light box to transfer the outline onto a clean A4 sheet (See Fig 1 below). I then drew the various planar lines the define the shape or indicate the relative position of various parts of the anatomy.
Fig 1 - A4 planar structure on image outline
Once I had the image outline, I started to transfer the construction onto an A3 sheet of 60gsm paper (See Fig 2 below). This process is usually quite laborious when using the grid method I have described in the past. I found the planar method comparatively quick by comparison, even though it looks more complicated. In practice the planar approach is not complicated at all, it proved quite intuitive one I had the hang of it. Needless to say, I still made mistakes.
Fig 2 - Scaling up the image from A4 to A3
Notice in the image above that I use a roller ruler, this
allows me to rapidly position a line on the A4 page and transfer it to the A3
page. Just make sure both pages are square to one another. Position the roller
rule along the line on the A4 page, roll it off the A4 sheet and remove the
sheet, then roll the ruler back to the position you want the line and draw it
in.
The other critical activity is scaling to make sure the lines are correctly positioned relative to one another. You can do this with a calculator if you like having to keep on typing numbers into a calculator or computer. You can also do it in your head if you are a mental arithmetic adept! It is also possible to do with proportional dividers, but that requires continual adjustments.
I have found the simplest approach is to use a slide rule…yes, it’s very simple. You set the centre rule to the conversion factor and all the actual conversions are there. You look, aided by the slider to guide your eye, for the distance you measured and next to it is the converted or scaled value.
Measurement is critical in art. I used to try to eyeball my images and it does work up to a point. But one art teacher I had many years ago, Walter Rose, said to me that you need to measure everything and continually check your dimensions and how things align. Needless to say I do not always do this as diligently as I should and the result is that the drawing or image goes awry! In the case of the Tiger drawing shown here, the front foot originally extended a significant distance beyond the nose of the Tiger. I had to do a bit of erasing and redrawing to make it look convincing to the eye.
Once the scaled-up outline is complete on the 60gsm A3 sheet I was ready to add details and shading. I keep my outlines for future use, say to produce a watercolour or oil painting on the same scale. In this case I put the sheet on a light-box and overlaid it with 120gsm paper and traced the outline through. The 120gsm sheet provides a better surface for smudging and toning with graphite. I sometimes use heavier paper and paper with more texture which adds to the visual interest of the image. On a previous post this effect can be seen on the different steam engines I have drawn.
Before, I repeat, before, I start creating the 3D effect on my nice mint 120gsm paper some time is set aside for research. I review from my library of art books animal anatomy and in particular the anatomy of the big cats (See Fig 3 below). For this image I carefully noted how the shoulder blades sit on a cat and where the foreleg bones are in relation to the body.
Fig 3 - Sample pages of big cat anatomy
The reference work that most inspires me is a palaeontology
book about the evolution of the big cats. What I like are the pencil
illustrations by Mauricio Anton. Mauricio is an artist who sets a standard for
reconstruction of long gone species and also a very high standard for pencil
illustration. Yes, I am a fan.
Finally, several days are spent doing sessions on the work. I started by producing a light grey toned background. To do this use a pencil sharpener and graphite stick, let the shavings fall on the areas to be toned. The rub the shavings around using a piece of tissue paper. Then lightly start drawing in body structure, muscles and bones that are a prominent part of the form. After that add the landmarks on the image, I use the stripes for this and some of the facial features.
Once the lightly drawn image is complete the next step is to progressively increase the tonal range by making the dark areas darker, and darker, and darker. All the time leaving mid toned areas alone once they are dark enough! Areas that need highlights can be created by careful application of the putty-rubber. Highlights were restricted to the spinal area and parts of the legs.
I also used tonal range to bring the nearside and foreground
towards the viewer. To do this I make sure the tonal range of these elements is
wide, and the more distant parts, for instance the far side legs, are depicted
in a tighter range of tones. The result can be seen below (See Fig 4 below).
Fig 4 - Final drawing of Ubuntu Tiger
