My Drawing Journey #7 - Leopard

It was a while since I posted one of my drawings. The reason is probably because I was too busy with traveling and visiting friends and family, so I hadn't much time for drawing.

Today I would like to share with you my drawing of an animal, that represents (at least for me) power and beauty - leopard.

The Process:

1. As always, I started with the outlines using HB pencil.

2. From start l knew that the most tricky part to draw, will be the area around the mouth and the nose. I drew the spots that are near the nose, and added some fur on the chin edge. Also, I drew the direction of the fur around the eyes.

3. Adding the spots (which apparently called rosettes, because it looks like a rose). It's very important to drew the rosettes in different sizes and shapes. The rosettes around the eyes and on the forehead line, are smaller and denser than the rest of rosettes.

4. Drawing the fur. In order to make the fur look short and dense, like in real life, I drew short lines (by making back and forth movement).

5. Adding rosettes to the body. I used 2HB pencil and I sketched it the same direction that I drew the fur.

6. To emphasize the contrast of the outlines and rosettes, I used 8HB pencil. For the darker areas of the fur I used 2HB pencil. I could used a darker pencil for the fur, but then the contrast would've been less ephasized.

To be honest, I started this drawing a month ago when I was still in Israel, but until yesterday, I didn't have much time to work on it. I think it took me overall 4 or 5 hours to work drew it, especially because I had to drew few layers of fur, to make it look more realistic.

Let me know what what you think about this drawing and what should I draw next.