The Beginning of 2 and hopefully the completion of 2!

I have abandoned the tiger as I really just saw it as a practice (learning) piece. I finally got my delivery of the professional acrylics and from now on I will be using the golden fluid brand of acrylic and ampersand gessoboard. I have spoke to an amazing artist who does outstanding work with acrylics and she has given me loads of help and advice! :) I am extremely lucky to be in contact with her.

I can't remember if I mentioned but all of my scratchboards works are done on the Ampersand brand. (The best!!)

The title of this post says it all really. I am hoping to finish two scratchboard pieces the Asiatic Lion and the Peacock. I have an update on the peacock and have just started doing the iconic feathers and I am trying to finish the stripy white and black feathers am not sure what they are called. I have found a new place to take pictures of my works, so I don't need to use photoshop to get rid of glare!

One of the new pieces I have started is a close up of an Amur Leopard. The reference photo is my own and was taken at Edinburgh zoo. The piece is only 5x7. This is the piece which I will be using to see just how far I can push scratchboard! It will not be coloured and will be left black and white. So far I believe that it is my best work!

The whole board:

An extreme close up of the eye much greater in size than in real life:

In addition to the Amur leopard I have started a leopard in acrylic. This time a snow leopard and the reference photo is from the fantastic photographer and friend Tambako the Jaguar from Flickr. This too is a 5x7. I started small since this is my first serious attempt at acrylics. It will be painted with golden acrylics and on ampersand gessoboard. So far I have just strengthened the transfer with a mixture of carbon black and burnt sienna. I will be starting the underpainting soon. Hopefully this will turn out better than the tiger. :)