Loyal Companions

This image of the late tusker Craig and a fellow bull elephant (one of his Askaris) having a dust bath in Amboseli National Park, Kenya has been sketched in the medium of Pastel on a tan PastelMat paper.

This ORIGINAL has now been SOLD to a PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Below are a sequence of images showing how I sketched the above elephants

I've lightly sketched in the two elephants

I've added some blue sky with Mt Kilimanjaro to the left of the image

I've started on the background trees before I add in the elephants and then more dust

Here I'm at my main easfilling in some shadow below Craig's right eye

I'm beginning to work down Craig's right side starting with his ear and then eye

I've now added his right shoulder, leg and filled in the heavier tusk

Here I'm working on Craig's left ear

I've started working on both of his ears now before moving onto his trunk and second tusk

I'm gradually working my way down and across Craig to his lighter tusk

Just a glance back at the easel from my computer chair, still a lot to do though

Here I've added some finer details to Craig's trunk and then moved onto the second bull

Having worked on the other bull I've now started bringing the dust into the image

Beautifully scanned by Framers Gallery