J is for Jaguar

I had a few goals in mind and I'm not sure I accomplished all of them, but I am happy with what I did create.

I went out first of all to get a good animal drawing. I think I did that. I think it feels like it is or could be moving, though in a bit of a more passive position. It also has the bulk that is distinctive to jaguars (as opposed to leopard). I think I also did a decent job at getting the loose skin at the stomach.

I also tried to get a little bit of design there. I think I could have done that a little better. I do have more rectangular than round shapes to add to the solidity, but I could have done better. (This reappears in the spots some: I tried to really get a more square than round shape.) The spots would a little more exaggerated if I hadn't been fighting the color scheme.

It's a little hard to see from the scan (forgive me, I don't have Photoshop at the moment), but I went with a pale yellow and purple for the color scheme. Well, belatedly I realized I didn't have a quite light enough purple. It turned out well, though I hated it before I re-outlined it and added the spots. The dark yellow/orange of the spots is a bit lighter and more subtle in real life, but what can you do?

I had considered doing a simpler yellow-cream-brown color scheme that I think would have given me a bit more freedom in terms of pushing shapes.

As I said, overall I'm happy with it.