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Description
Long time, no proper art. It's time to break that issue, and with something beautiful. Or more like, someone.

I must have said it somewhere, ages ago, that I really love Snow Leopards. If I am to pick a favourite among the felines, as difficult as that is, that's likely to be the Snow Leopard. Or as they are also called in the local languages: Bars or Irbis. I like those names even better. Now, given that, I am amazed at myself that I've only ever drawn a single portrait (albeit in many versions) of an Irbis before, already ages ago, because they are incredibly inspiring, incredibly nice to draw and just.... where the Hell has my head been all these years?! No matter, I've now started fixing that obvious and rather unforgivable lapse, hehe. Kidding aside, through the years there have been so many beautiful and inspiring portraits of Snow Leopards that I've been wishing to draw, but somehow never got to it. Until now.

Actually, this is for an occasion of sorts. October 23 is International Snow Leopard day, and you may know what I think about "days" like that.... they are not enough. The Irbis, like so many others, need support and consideration throughout the 365,25 days of the year, not only on October 23. Nevertheless, the little I can do is to try use my art to direct a little more attention towards them that may hopefully last beyond that single day in the year. Because these amazing and beautiful big felines are also among the rarest on the planet. With total population in the wild somewhere between 2 000 and 8 000 individuals (it's difficult to even estimate for sure), they certainly need protection. The good news is, there are promising initiatives for the protection of the Irbis, which I believe can achieve a lot in letting this beautiful feline once again thrive in their ancestral land. The bad news is, as always there are selfish, or downright greedy human interests that continuously threated their natural habitat and survival. What you can do about it? You can support the initiatives which work for their protection.

Read about Snow Leopards and the efforts to protect them:
Snow Leopard Trust: www.snowleopard.org
Snow Leopard Conservancy: snowleopardconservancy.org
Snow Leopard Network: www.snowleopardnetwork.org

If you want to read more about why I believe supporting Predators is important, here's my own article on the subject: The Importance of Predators

Now a bit about the drawing itself. Like I said, I've wanted to draw an Snow Leopard again for a long long time, and I'm happy to finally do that. I have several photos chosen for references (so future Snow Leopard art is also gonna spawn), and I picked this one in particular because I wanted a simple portrait, without a fancy lighting or more dynamic composition or expression. Something calm, to simply revere the beauty and spirit of this great feline and convey their spirit in a simple, pure form. I also thought I'd do it in graphite only, because it's the media that I consider myself most skilled into.... and I needed that skill for the shading and pattern of the fur. I intended to only have the eyes showing color. But then I changed my mind. Looking at the photo and the subtle colors of the fur, I couldn't help but marvel at how the seemingly simple fur color actually contains so many different colors and shades. In fact, that is the trickiest thing about natural colorations: colors are never simple, unless perhaps if you are a flower.... no, not even then. Gray and brown are particularly difficult because they are usually a mix of so many subtle shades.... in fact, these "boring" colors are among the most complex ones, because they show all the different shades in them most prominently. It's something very difficult to replicate in art with its true richness and variety, and I always marvel at artists who manage that.
So I decided to try something along those lines as well. I added a subtle, fine layer of pale color *before* proceeding with my old friend, the graphite. And I'm actually pretty satisfied with the result. Even if I didn't really take the time to refine the fur and make it more detailed, it still has some of the richness of the natural fur shades of the Snow Leopards, and in that regard it is much better and feels much more like them than my previous, digital portrait, however super-detailed and refined it may have been. And of course, then I added the final touch with the shiny light blue outline because I'm me. After all, shiny fur outline is one of my favourite things, both to observe and even more so to draw.

Reference:

by

(I know what you mean about the pain of improvement....
Then again, I hope you enjoy that I put this portrait to good use )

2B - 8B graphite, polychromos color pencils.
20 x 30 cm white paper. About 4 hours.

Featured:
The snow leopard: Panthera Uncia
Features From Week 43
Sweet Saturday Vol. 46
Traditional feature week 43
Small art feature

Description
Long time, no proper art. It's time to break that issue, and with something beautiful. Or more like, someone.

I must have said it somewhere, ages ago, that I really love Snow Leopards. If I am to pick a favourite among the felines, as difficult as that is, that's likely to be the Snow Leopard. Or as they are also called in the local languages: Bars or Irbis. I like those names even better. Now, given that, I am amazed at myself that I've only ever drawn a single portrait (albeit in many versions) of an Irbis before, already ages ago, because they are incredibly inspiring, incredibly nice to draw and just.... where the Hell has my head been all these years?! No matter, I've now started fixing that obvious and rather unforgivable lapse, hehe. Kidding aside, through the years there have been so many beautiful and inspiring portraits of Snow Leopards that I've been wishing to draw, but somehow never got to it. Until now.

Actually, this is for an occasion of sorts. October 23 is International Snow Leopard day, and you may know what I think about "days" like that.... they are not enough. The Irbis, like so many others, need support and consideration throughout the 365,25 days of the year, not only on October 23. Nevertheless, the little I can do is to try use my art to direct a little more attention towards them that may hopefully last beyond that single day in the year. Because these amazing and beautiful big felines are also among the rarest on the planet. With total population in the wild somewhere between 2 000 and 8 000 individuals (it's difficult to even estimate for sure), they certainly need protection. The good news is, there are promising initiatives for the protection of the Irbis, which I believe can achieve a lot in letting this beautiful feline once again thrive in their ancestral land. The bad news is, as always there are selfish, or downright greedy human interests that continuously threated their natural habitat and survival. What you can do about it? You can support the initiatives which work for their protection.

Read about Snow Leopards and the efforts to protect them:
Snow Leopard Trust: www.snowleopard.org
Snow Leopard Conservancy: snowleopardconservancy.org
Snow Leopard Network: www.snowleopardnetwork.org

If you want to read more about why I believe supporting Predators is important, here's my own article on the subject: The Importance of Predators

Now a bit about the drawing itself. Like I said, I've wanted to draw an Snow Leopard again for a long long time, and I'm happy to finally do that. I have several photos chosen for references (so future Snow Leopard art is also gonna spawn), and I picked this one in particular because I wanted a simple portrait, without a fancy lighting or more dynamic composition or expression. Something calm, to simply revere the beauty and spirit of this great feline and convey their spirit in a simple, pure form. I also thought I'd do it in graphite only, because it's the media that I consider myself most skilled into.... and I needed that skill for the shading and pattern of the fur. I intended to only have the eyes showing color. But then I changed my mind. Looking at the photo and the subtle colors of the fur, I couldn't help but marvel at how the seemingly simple fur color actually contains so many different colors and shades. In fact, that is the trickiest thing about natural colorations: colors are never simple, unless perhaps if you are a flower.... no, not even then. Gray and brown are particularly difficult because they are usually a mix of so many subtle shades.... in fact, these "boring" colors are among the most complex ones, because they show all the different shades in them most prominently. It's something very difficult to replicate in art with its true richness and variety, and I always marvel at artists who manage that.
So I decided to try something along those lines as well. I added a subtle, fine layer of pale color *before* proceeding with my old friend, the graphite. And I'm actually pretty satisfied with the result. Even if I didn't really take the time to refine the fur and make it more detailed, it still has some of the richness of the natural fur shades of the Snow Leopards, and in that regard it is much better and feels much more like them than my previous, digital portrait, however super-detailed and refined it may have been. And of course, then I added the final touch with the shiny light blue outline because I'm me. After all, shiny fur outline is one of my favourite things, both to observe and even more so to draw.

Reference:

by

(I know what you mean about the pain of improvement....
Then again, I hope you enjoy that I put this portrait to good use )

2B - 8B graphite, polychromos color pencils.
20 x 30 cm white paper. About 4 hours.

Featured:
The snow leopard: Panthera Uncia
Features From Week 43
Sweet Saturday Vol. 46
Traditional feature week 43
Small art feature