It has been over 8 months since the last time I have drawn my favorite Disney character, Duchess. What lead me back to this single mother cat was my interest in a cel of her, which was up for auction on eBay. The cell was of a portrait close-up of her face, and I would have loved to add it to my collection. Unfortunately, the cel's price went up exponentially and quickly became more expensive than I could afford. I was quite a bit upset about losing it, so for therapy I decided I would draw Duchess to make me feel better.
This drawing was based on a frame from the movie where Duchess and her kittens were lost in the French countryside and had just run into Thomas O'Malley, who they hoped would be their savior. Thomas, on the other hand, was only interested in "saving" Duchess, and when this became clear to Duchess she was more than a little disappointed. My drawing shows her saddened face as she explains to O'Malley that she understands his true intentions perfectly, and that she will not burden him any longer. Lucky for Duchess and her kittens O'Malley eventually changes his mind and leads them home.
The improvement in my overall drawing technique is evident between this drawing of Duchess and my previous works I made more than 8 months ago. In my attempt to mimic the Disney animators I have switched to non-photo blue pencils and pigment ink pens. It all results in smoother more solid lines then what I used to achieve with my previous technique of darkening pencil lines on a computer. Also, I have made some changes to what colors I used to color her with. For example, I know use a Cobalt Blue Prismacolor pencil to color in her irises instead of a black ink Pigma Micron pen. Overall, it makes for a brighter more authentic looking drawing of Duchess.
This drawing was done on 80lb. medium surface Strathmore drawing paper. For the rough pencil work I used a non-photo blue pencil. I then inked the drawing with a size 08 ZiG Millennium and a size 05 Pigma Micron. I scanned the drawing and cleaned it up in Paintshop Pro 7.02, and then printed it. The print out was on standard fax/copy paper and was colored with Crayola and Sanford Prismacolor colored pencils. The lettering was added with Paint Shop Pro 7.02.
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