Pelican Figure

This is my black and white observational drawing. For this project we had to create a realistic portrait of a animal figure. I decided on a pelican. The material was open-ended, and we were allowed to zoom in. I chose to crop the feet out of the image, and focus on putting most of the detail and attention into the head.

I started out the project by sketching the general outline of the bird with a 2H pencil. I went over the edges again to get more exact borders. I used a HB pencil to add detail to the face, trying to keep track of shapes and wrinkles. I then went in to add texture to the body, and feathers to the wings. I focused on where the figure showed direction and made sure that that matched with my drawing. I then went in with a 6B pencil and pushed my contrasts more to make them pop.

While this project was supposed to be mainly black and white, I chose to add selective color in the background by creating a light gradient with green colored pencil. This work is a bit different from the art I usually create. Overall I like this piece. I am happy with how it turned out. If I did it again I would focus more on the shadows created.