Snow Leopard

Here is my first completed entry for the David Shepherd 2011 competition. Big cats, including Snow Leopards, are quite popular subjects in this competition. It was an Amur Leopard that got me through to the finals last time so I thought I would focus on a similarly endangered species.
This was a very difficult image to initially sketch out. The face of the cub especially, took a good few hours to get right. The other challenge was to create the 'fluffy' look of the fur. These leopards have incredibly dense fur to keep out the cold, and this is what differentiates them from other big cats. To recreate the fluffy look, I simply flicked the black and cream colours onto the paper. I also outlined the form of the leopards with white ink. I kept the background simple, as these cats live in snow covered mountains. A wash of paynes grey and more flicks of black completed the picture.
I want to enter two paintings, and so this weekend I will set to work on either a Scarlet of Hyacinth Macaw. These will be perfect subjects for the 'Endangered' category.