The Lop-Eared Pandrilla

Last Friday on my Twitch Stream, we did the eighteenth 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. This was the last new #DrawTheExtinct draw along (though we will be doing some make up sessions before moving on to a new First Friday theme in August. 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 Lop-eared Pandrilla. 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 a Lop eared bunny, a Panda, and a Gorilla.

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 by drawing with a mechanical pencil my Pandrilla.I focused on the Gorilla stance and mouth adding in panda coloring (and hind paws) and leaving the lop eared bunny as the ears and tail alone. Once I had my drawing pretty well done, I scanned it and did some resizing and morphing tweaks (including mirroring it horizontally so it's facing the alternate direction as last month's entry). While I had it in Photoshop I also slopped down some basic color to help me visualize what I was going for tonally in the final piece.

After I was happy 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 Lop Eared Pandrilla. I used Copic Multiliner 0.7 & 0.3 SP pens to ink the art. I worked on the outer contours first, then went back in to add all the darker texture and tone to the arms, legs, spots, ears, and paws. The timing of this month's work was perfect. I had my pencils done in an hour and then wrapped the inks 10 min before the end of the stream.

I signed off and wished everyone at home well in their pieces over the weekend and after the stream ended and I got a bite to eat, I scanned the inks and flatted the colors. 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.

I went with the color scheme I'd roughed in when doing the pencil/layout stage. Though I did warm up the lighter tone and go darker with the dark spots. 

 

I had a nice long chat with an old friend on the phone as I did the rendering. To get all the highlights, shading, and texture I used the dodge and burn tools with a stock photoshop texture brush. I also selected areas and used the color balance tool to tint them warmer or cooler. 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.

Capt.Nemo

AmyLeB

CreatingRuth*

DePuggo*

EvilCartoonist

Nuvalo

RedJarOJam*

Tyrie*

Nate Pride*

This was the final #DrawTheExtinct species to draw--but we will be doing several more make-up sessions on the 10th and 17th of this month, for folks who only recently discovered the draw-along and want to go back and have some fun, for people who participated, but missed a few critters, or people who want to take another try and a piece they were less than happy with.

twitch.tv/davidpetersen