Hello everyone! Today I'm going to share a drawing that I did last night. It is the side angle of an elephant.
The prompt for Inktober Day 29 is 'Tusk'
I have always loved elephants. I have a small collection of little elephant decorations and keychains. I also watch their sanctuary videos often and follow their pages to check on the new babies rescued. It's a shame that they are still being hunted and attacked by poachers for their tusks. Many babies turned out to be orphans because these greedy humans kill their mothers in the process and sometimes even the babies.
These sanctuaries regularly send helicopters and rescuers through the forest to check if there are any abandoned babies and once they're sure the mom isn't coming, they rescue the orphaned babies and raise them along side the other rescue elephants. They get rewilded later when they are old enough and are capable of surviving in the wild.
Since it's about tusk, I started the drawing with them and extended it to the elephant's head and eye. This is only a part of the drawing and it's mostly a basic outline. Unfortunately, I think I messed the eye part. I'll have to work on fixing that later.
Then, I started working on the ear. Elephants have large ears that help them to regulate their temperature. They flap their ears to cool down like a fan. I drew many shadows in layers to show that they are large and thin.
I then moved on to the trunk of the elephant. I realized it will take some time to create the texture of elephant skin. Many tiny lines along the trunk helped to make the shadows like a real elephant's. After that, I moved to the head of the elephant. It was not easy to add those tiny lines, both horizontal and vertical all over the trunk and head to create the skin like texture. I felt like it took forever.
I added another layer of those shadows in the form of lines. I had to go over the same lines multiple times. I also used my white pen here and there to fix some parts. The white pen was very handy in the drawing as sometimes I overdo the black ink lines. I also managed to fix the eye after multiple uses of my black pen and white pen. I'm only showing the last part of the fix here.
I also used the magic of the white pen to fix the tusk area. I cleaned it up a little so it doesn't look messy. I have also added more ink to darken the shadow of the tusks which falls on the trunk of the elephant. After a few more touch ups, I considered this as the final outcome. I wanted to post it but I was too tired due to my road trip. So I fell asleep instead with the lights on.
Today morning, I had a fresh perspective on the artwork and felt that I can make a few more improvements. So I used my white pen and made a few more touch ups at the tusk area, the trunk and the bottom of the ear. I was just cleaning up a little as I didn't want too many stray lines. This drawing was time consuming due to adding details and texture on the elephant skin but it was also satisfying at the end.
I took the last three pictures in natural light of the sun. That's why they seem warmer and brighter too. As the sun rays change, I had varying degrees of lighting but they all have a warm tint compared to the LED light I use at night. So this is the real final outcome of my art.
Thank you for dropping by and I hope that you have a great day ahead!