David Petersen's Blog: Banded Haremole (or Banded Lepusmole)

Last Friday on my Twitch Stream, we did the fourteenth community draw-along event #DrawTheExtinct where I posted an image from an old block print I made with a few animal photo inspiration prompts and the idea to create an imaginary extinct animal. I worked on my piece live on my Twitch stream while viewers worked at home and then on Monday we shared our finished pieces.

Here is my finished Banded Haremole (though originally I called it the Banded Lepusmole as you'll see below). And below are my steps to create it as well as the community submissions.

We started with the prompt of my original 2000's era linocut print titled 'Extinct' as well as a Skunk, a Mole, and a Hare.

I told the viewers that they could use any combination of the inspiration prompts––they could make their version as cute and cuddly as a pocket pet stray kitten, as monstrous and deadly as a giant kaiju destroying cities, or anything in between. I also wanted this to be an excuse to get their pencils moving. I invited all skill levels, because I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't have to be good at something or pursuing mastery of it to just simply enjoy the act of it...and art is no exception.

On the Friday stream I started drawing with mechanical pencil on a sheet of copy paper to try and reimagine the beast. I liked the idea of drawing it standing in a similar posture as my original print. I felt like the body shape of the mole made sense to pair up well with the paws (though I did for a brief moment consider hare hind paws). Then Hare ears and teeth, and lastly skunk markings (to denote 'banded') and tail.

I scanned my pencils and did a quick color blocking pass in photoshop to help me see the forms, especially where the darker fur met the lighter fur.

After I was happy enough with my above design, I printed that piece out on copy paper and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. Using a lightpad, I was able to see through the surface of the bristol as I inked the Banded Haremole. I used a Copic Multiliner 0.7 SP pen to ink the art. I spent most of my inking time on stream working on the fur contours and mole-like paws––and I saved the darker fur texture/tone for last.

I finished the inks on-stream and was able to scan and start the color flats while still broadcasting. For these Draw The Extinct pieces I have a template with background and border already established, so it makes some of this color prep work all the easier.

The Banded Haremole's colors were mostly established by my decisions on the color blocking step when working on the pencils.

After the stream ended and I had a chance to grab some dinner, I returned to finish the flats, blending the transition between the light and dark fur and establishing the paws and claws.

To get all the highlights, shading, and texture I used the dodge and burn tools with a stock photoshop texture brush. Below you can again see the final rendered colors with a border and type applied in this final version.

But, as this is a community event, I wanted to share all the other entries posted in the Discord. I awarded a prize and we voted together on a few more (prize winners marked with *) on Monday's Twitch stream and we all enjoyed seeing what each other had done. I hope we get even more participants next month (First Friday!)