Beautiful Oops

The purpose of this work was to take a piece of paper with ink blots on it and draw something that incorporated the inkblot. The first thing that I thought of when I saw my inkblot, was the pupil of an eye. It was a rather large inkblot so I decided that the eye would have to be that of a large animal. And what better large animal than a lion.

I started by researching pictures of a lion's eyes, I then started sketching with my lightest graphite shade, I drew the basic shapes and outlines of a lion's eye and then started lightly shading the areas that needed to be darker. After I had my base I started drawing the fur, little tiny hairs that I drew with a light shade, which I later went over with different shades to create shadow, and movement, and to make it look more realistic. After I was done drawing I was looking at my piece and I did not think that It looked completed. My darkest areas and cut lines where I used my 6B pencil weren't dark enough, so I decided to go in with a black pen and added a few more details, and darkened some lines.

I thought about adding color, to all of it, and then I thought about just adding color to the eye but I decided that the piece would really stand out in black and white. I researched a lot because I really wanted to eye to be realistic and accurate. Before I started on my first real sketch on my actual piece of paper I used scrap paper and tested out a few different techniques before I started my final draft on the actual paper with the inkblot, I think doing that really paid off. I also revised a lot, lightened areas with my eraser, just plain erased a lot of things and I really revised it as I went.