The Giant and the Universe - Drawing of The Galápagos Giant Tortoise

This is the first drawing in my new series, where I portray endangered species.

The Galápagos giant tortoise is the world's largest living tortoise and has an estimated average lifespan of 150 to 200 years. They were nearly hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th century, and today they're threatened by introduced species and cattle. The Galápagos giant tortoise is red listed as vulnerable, meaning it's facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. Today's population is increasing due to ongoing conservation efforts (source 1, 2).

The Giant and the Universe

The tortoise is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge, and represent time and longevity.

Size: A4
Paper: Arches hot pressed watercolor paper
Tools: Copic Sketch markers, Prismacolor Premier pencil, Staedtler Violet Mechanical Pencil, Sakura white gel pen

Close-ups

How the drawing was made

The concept sketch
Concept sketches are very helpful to do if you're not sure how you want make your drawing or if you have multiple ideas ant can't decide on which you like the most.

Since I had multiple ideas for this drawing, I started with a couple of super messy, small concept sketches. My sketching skills aren't very good, so I never spend time on making the concept sketches actually look good. I ended up drawing three quick concept sketches, and decided on this one.

The sketch
Once I decided on my concept, I started the actual sketch. I used a regular mechanical pencil for the butterflies and the tortoise, and lined the head of the tortoise with a warm gray multiliner. I used a light warm gray marker to sketch the tree. Since I didn't want the pencil lines on the butterflies to show, I ended up erasing the pencil marks and drawing the lines with a violet mechanical pencil instead.

I had a hard time sketching the tortoises feet, I tried multiple times, but they never looked right, so I decided to skip them and move on with the rest of the drawing. If there is something you just can't seem to get right, it usually helps to put it a side for a while, and come back to it later.

The coloring
Then I started using my markers. I wasn't sure on how I wanted to color or shade the tortoise, so I started out with the other parts of the drawing. First I colored the galaxy and the butterflies, then the tree. When that was done I sort of new how I wanted the tortoise to look. I sketched the legs and colored and shaded the tortoise, trying to incorporate the colors of the butterflies into the tortoises skin.

I used the following markers for the entire drawing:

• W0, W1, W2, W5
• N7
• V000, V12, V15, V17, V20, V22, V25

The drawing without details and highlights
This is what the drawing looked like when I was done with the markers, but before adding details and highlights.

The finished drawing
I added some details and touched up a few areas using black color pencil and violet mechanical pencil, and added highlights using white color pencil and white gel pen.

Postface

If you want to know more about me, check out my introduction post or my blog. ^_^

More of my work:

• The Steem Wolf
• Pikachu (aka Tripachu) and the magic mushrooms – tutorial
  

Social media and store:

• Instagram
• Etsy
  

#animal #tortoise #steemart