Maud and the Fawn

I decided to join the Monthly Challenge over at Willowing. I have always love deer and developed a special affinity with does after becoming a mother. I think of them as protectors;  nurturing the soul in times of mayhem. Step into the cool glade with a doe, look into her eyes and everything seems alright.

I think that it can be fun to share to creative process, so here is how this assemblage came into being. Maud has become my favourite girl to draw at the moment, so I knew she had to be in my picture. The tree is inspired by a Ficus macrophylla or the Moreton Bay Fig. At the beginning I wanted to draw a doe, and so I decided to browse some images online to get a reference for the animal. I wanted it to be semi-realistic rather than cartoonish. Given the scale of Maud, I quickly decided that perhaps a fawn, laying next to her would fit into the overall picture better. And then I found the perfect fawn picture. It was so adorable that I had to draw her.

I started by sketching out the images in my Mole, and adding shading to the fawn and tree (HB pencil)

The next stage was probablly the most scarey - and seems to be shared among many of my art friends ADDING COLOUR. The fawn, tree and border were coloured using artists Colour Pencils. I love the way that they do not completely cover the paper and that some "light" shines through. To me it adds a textural quality.

After working on the fawn and the tree, my next task was to colour in Maud. In this case, because she has such a large area to cover, (and because I wanted to experiment) I decided to do an underwash of watercolour. I used my Watersoluble Crayons. I also use Colour Pencil to colour the ferns, and added random flowers and leaves around the twisted vine border.

Once the underwash was dry, I then added the details with Colour Pencil.

At this point there was some dilemma; real forests are super dark and gloomy. But given that Maud's hair is black, I decided to start with a light wash and see how I went. I used the Watercolour Crayons to create the wash.

After consultation with a fellow artist (Kelly from Yesturday)  I decided not to go any darker. A skill for another day. Finally I added Maud's signature socks.

Maud and the Faun

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