Donkeys have such a wonderful gentle but comical character and love to be with other animals. Where I live, there is a lane which we call the donkey track as one of the fields there used to house a horse and donkey with chickens too. Often I would walk my girls when they were young so that they could pet him/her and the sound……well who doesn’t love the great sound of a ‘HEE-HAW’??
Techniques; sketch in pen to build confidence (some learners may prefer to use a pencil and eraser instead) I encourage the pen as this can be rectified to a degree when it dissipates with water. It means the learner when going back to pencil, will find pencil ‘easy’ whilst at the same time gaining courage with a pen.
Wax resist to reserve whites
Learn how to scale by eye and ‘units’
Turn the piece upside-down from time to time to assess shapes and proportions
Building up gentle tones with the brush, water on the pen marks
Strengthen the donkey using the watered down ink primarily to build second layers (first were done using the pen and wash)
Paint in some background wash of rose madder and use sparingly on donkey just to draw attention to the face as red is an aggressive/advancing colour
Finishing touches to be made with the micron permanent and then scratching more highlights with the blade once fully dry
Spatter technique too
A great place to start is our Inspiration for All page where you’ll find a host of free videos waiting for you – they’re a fantastic taster of the tutorials you’ll be able to watch part of your SAA membership.
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