Animal shapes

The Christmas animal shape lights have been appearing around the zoo grounds over the last week or so, although they are not yet 'lit up'. There is a lot of work done by the Maintenance Dept to get the animal shapes out of storage, checked electrically and then put out in position in the grounds, poles to be sunk into the ground securely to fix the shapes to, some of them such as the giraffe are life size and so need good strong support. Then the electrics have to be laid out safely and to top all that they then have the zoo artist (me) coming round to check the shapes for correct grouping, shape adjustments etc.

So this morning I met up with one of the maintenance chaps, Eddie, and had a quick chat about the lights and fixed a day this week (Wednesday) to go around with him making the alterations I pick up on. Then I went round to each of the light displays and checked what needs attention, noting where light tubing needs to be cable-tied where it was 'straying' from the shape formed by aluminium strips; what legs/necks/backs need to be bent back into a more desirable shape (they always get a bit bent out of shape in the storing process); which support struts need adjusting and which animals need to be moved so they 'sit' in their positions better.

That done, it was back to the studio to make a start on the red-bellied lemur ID... at last I get to do a bit of drawing! Been back 3 weeks and no drawing/painting til now.

As mentioned in one of last week's posts this species is sexually dichromatic, which is to say that male and females markings look different.. in this case the males have white markings under their eyes (the females do not). Females have paler coloured undersides, males have the same reddish fur colour underneath as they have on their upper body and legs. So the position of the animals have to be done to show these differences, also to show the general species markings like, for this species, the darker fur on the back from the shoulders to the tail.

We currently have two males and there are no plans in the near future to breed this species, so no females are due to join them. Therefore there is no reason to show the females in the illustration as there are none for the public to see. But there is always the saying, never say never.. so just in case females are brought to the collection in the future I need to allow room in the composition for a female to be added. So although I am not yet to draw/paint one I still have to think about what position the female is to be drawn and where in the composition she will sit. I had a good idea of how I wanted to do the composition and this is a rough showing that idea fitting the oblong shape format that the finished illustration has to fit into. 

These are the photos I am using as reference - one sheet is for the male and the other the position references for the female. I am combining the photos to get the animals into a position that shows off all the elements I need to illustrate - for the male it's all about his eyes, back and tail and for the female it will be (if it ever gets done) about her eyes and underside. Where the feet are dark in shadow I enlarge and lighten a copy of the image so that I can see better the anatomical details and form.

And so onto the drawing of the male. I start with a rough shaping in of the limb angles, comparative sizes of head to body and general body shape. No detailing or refinements yet, not until I get this basic drawing right first.

Then onto refining and getting the detailing better established ready for the painting.

This afternoon I will start the painting, working on a simple background first before starting the animal.