Doe (COLOR SKETCH) (Patreon)

Another warmup drawing (two in fact!), this time working off some recent deer anatomy practice and fleshing it out in color. I try to limit the time I spend on these any one of these, and by the end, the first one with the plain background felt a lot flatter than I wanted. So a few days later I gave it another shot and got some punchier colors and shading. Much more like I hoped for :) A simple gradient shadow from the bottom kinda sells the fading atmospheric light I think, and grounds her in the scenery.

She might end up an actual character in a finished piece, but there's other deer I want to explore in some color sketches. I was never totally thrilled with how my cervids looked in previous pics, so I decided they need some special attention. This is kind of in keeping with a personal habit of rotating through species of interest to solidify them in my furry repertoire -- even though they all need revisiting from time to time.

We got any deer enthusiasts here? 🦌