For my drawing, I used standard markers in various shades of brown for the mane to create texture and contribute to the movement of the fur. I also used a raspberry-colored marker for the base layer of the nose and then covered that with a scribble of a thin black pen so some of the pink still shone through. I used yellow, brown, and orange-colored pencils for the shorter fur, a light blue for the iris, and an HB pencil for the whiskers. My process began when I was given a black squiggle drawn on a piece of paper by one of my classmates and told to make a picture out of it. It took me a while to see something I liked in the squiggle (I had to rotate the paper many times) but eventually, I held the paper so it was tilted and not straight up and down and saw a mouth or snout. I immediately connected this to a lion and began sketching the rest of the lion’s profile. A small sharp zig on the section where the nose was fit perfectly into becoming part of the nostril. Only after I had an outline of my entire drawing (with the exception of the eye) did I start using color, first on the nose and then to the mane. If I were to restart this project, I would have used all colored pencil and sharpie to improve the composition of the piece. A few minutes into sketching my lion, I debated whether or not to turn it into Scooby-Doo per Phoebe’s suggestion. However, I decided the probability of that turning out well would be even lower than a lion, so I stuck with my first choice.

I used lines and texture in the lion’s mane to give the illusion of movement, which contributed to the lion's expression of surprise. I also used color, value, and texture to create an emphasis on the nose that contrasted the rest of the picture. When filling in the bottom layer of pink, I drew in small circles, going over each section multiple times to make it darker. Then I cross-hatched using thin black sharpie so hints of the pink would still show through. The lion’s profile also created an interesting negative space in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

The lion’s expression is particularly evident in the picture. He has a surprised, happy, goofy smile which was what caught my attention while trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my squiggle. The lion appears to be looking up at something, face lit up. In the title, I added that he was experimenting with eyeliner after I made the mistake of adding black. While the subject of this picture didn’t really relate to my life, it allowed me to experiment with using marker which is not a material I would usually choose for a drawing. I’m proudest of the way the nose of the lion turned out. From far away, it appears black due to the heavy shading, but from close up you can see the pink showing through and adding a more realistic effect. I struggled with the eye, especially after I made the mistake of adding black. Not being able to erase it, I decided to instead embrace the mistake and make it part of the lion’s story.