A new design approach
Due to my lack of natural drawing ability and patience to develop drawing skills, I have employed a few shortcuts to develop the cartoon for one of my pieces (pictured at left). I was charged by my client to create a piece with an African landscape/wildlife theme. I already had in my mind that I would like to show one or two animals relaxing or grazing on an savannah with a sunset in the background. My first step was to take a visit to the local zoos and snap as many pictures as I could of elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinos, etc. and decide which pictures would lend themselves best to this scene. The winning candidate was a lion enjoying the shade at the Fort Worth zoo (pictured below). Although the lion's pose was perfect for the idea that I had envisioned, there were a couple of problems. First, this is a young lion that had not yet grown its full mane, and for the sake of artistic effect I could not possibly forego the lion's most iconic characteristic. Secondly, how th...