The Clouded Secret

World of leopards series

This is a sketch of a Clouded Leopard walking along a fallen tree branch. It has been sketched using Pastels on Clairefontaine paper.

This is my first attempt at sketching a species of leopard whose habitat is outside the Africa continent, the leopard is found in South East Asia.

Clouded Leopards dwell in the cloud forests of Southeast Asia and are one of the most ancient of cat species. However, they are neither a true great cat nor a true small cat, because they cannot roar or purr. Sadly poaching and also habitat loss now threatens the survival of this vulnerable species.

Below are the sequence of photographs showing how I sketched the above image

I begin lightly sketching in a rough outline of the leopard on the shape of a tree stump

Gradually I'm working in the background green and distant sapling trees

I've added the eyes before I start work on the ears of the leopard

Here I'm adding some highlights to the leopards inner ear

I'm starting on it's head by working down it's snout to it's chin

I've added it's long fluffy tail, now working on it's chest and then onto its large paws

I'm lightly touching in some more highlights to the fur on the leopards left foreleg

I"m slowly adding the tight fur on the legs then I'll add some whiskers on it.

Gradually the paws and now the mossy bark on the tree is beginning to take shape

Here I am at my easel working on the moss with a soft pastel pencil

Scanned image by Framers Gallery

Just having a quick pose in front of the finished image before getting it framed