Rabbit 5 - Practicing Making Scary Shadows

The photo play I did back on the 9th (see Grenouille’s post “l'inclusivité”) got crossed in my head with the Rabbit series from February and this was the result.

18 x 24 inches, white and black charcoal on kraft paper.

This drawing has been unusually loud today. I started it this morning and it has hardly let me think (or talk) about anything else unless I was working on it. Early this afternoon, about half way through the shadows, the General’s HB charcoal pencil was less than 2 inches long. I wasn’t going to make it… even if I used pliers and managed to sharpen it down to just half an inch long. I did some agitated scrounging through boxes of pencils and bags and backpacks where I have sketching materials. I found several other General’s charcoal pencils, but they were the wrong hardness - they would have been obviously different in depth of black and texture. Finally I found another nearly new HB, so I was able to finish this! I couldn’t imagine being able to sleep with it incomplete.

The drawing was done from a heavily hacked version of the photo in Grenouille’s post on the 9th. I dropped in a rabbit and then roughly drew its shadow with one of the Paintbrush markers and my mouse. Then I stretched the rabbit shadow to the left, more on top than further down.

When I draw from anything I find that I unconsciously “normalize” it. Often that’s unintentional and frustrating, but in this case it’s an asset. I also shortened the rabbit in the drawing (from the top and from the bottom, to move it back); I was trying to increase the cuteness contrast between the bunny and the crylophosaurus. With that in mind, I also emphasized the dinosaur’s teeth in the figure and it’s shadow. I also put a smile on the bunny; this is obviously two friends having fun in the spotlight.

Thanks to my friend Michelle, again, for the loan of the dinosaurs, and for introducing me to crylophosaurus. That’s a new species, for me.