Greetings Everyone! For my sample project I decided to go with the ink painting of an owl. Owl's are very mysterious and wise, so I decided to draw one.

I've included the three images which would work for your projects below. You can either upload your images at once at the end, or one by one as you progress through the class. I would recommend uploading the images as you progress, to allow the other student, myself included, to comment on them!

My chosen reference photo has a lot of details and the quality is good enough to allow me to find my way across the image. Try to find an image with the same qualities if possible. If you want to use your own photos of wildlife, that's even better! The important thing here is to get an image with lots of detail, and of an animal that you like. 

Next is the undersketch. I quickly redrew my undersketch digitally to better show you what I'm looking for in the undersketch. Quick loose lines is all you need. Just let the pencil glide over the paper. Also try and determine your landmarks, and line up the important focal points such as in my case the eyes and the beak.

The final piece to upload to the gallery is your finished animal ink portrait. If you'd like, you can post a progress image of your painting on the gallery to receive feedback on how you are progressing. Don't worry if your painting doesn't end up looking exactly like your reference photo, mine doesn't either. 

If you keep practising and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will achieve great things and then discerning between your paintings and the reference images will be next to impossible.