For this project I decided to explore realism in drawing, while committing to the medium I am most comfortable with. Using pen/ink for this meant that I hard time depicting 'shades' which would be more easily achieved with the likes of pencil or charcoal, but it did help me exercise a lot more control over the pressure I applied, which has been interesting!

The first elephant's face and ears took approximately 150 hours as the entire thing is stippled.

Elephant No.1 is based on some illustrations and a photograph I found on Pinterest which I later tracked down to photographer Nick Brandt. I have tried to retain the general shape and direction of the look, without being influenced by the details of the elephant, to make it my own. I have studied and referred to other elephant images but please excuse me if it bears resemblance to the original reference pieces, because it's an elephant... I tried.