Showing posts with label animal drawings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal drawings. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Intricate Ink Animals In Detail Volume 2

My passion for drawing animals and collaborative coloring

by Tim Jeffs


25 images to color in a casebound book on high-quality paper


Available to order here:

Book Depository.com

The past year has been one of the most creative years in all of my artistic career. After publishing my first coloring book "Intricate Ink Animals In Detail" in January 2016 and having it enjoyed by so many wonderful colorists from around the world I was humbled by the overwhelming response to it. A passion for drawing has always driven me to draw constantly, but the incredible feedback I received through social media made me step up my drawing game to levels I couldn't even imagine I could achieve. There was constant encouragement to publish a second coloring book and I was thrilled at the idea!

My first book took over 2 years to create. It consisted of 50 drawings that took me over 40 hours each to draw. All of my drawings are created by hand with either pen and ink or colored pencil, and I pride myself of working this way even if it is much slower and time consuming than creating art on the computer as many artist do today. Also I am not a full time artist. By day I am a Creative Director of a publishing company and therefore the time I have to draw is only at night, so this effects the amount of drawings I can produce.

A hunger for more animals to color

My passion to create art is all about enjoying what I am drawing, enriching people's love for animals and sharing my art with them to color. And after the success of my first book and a hunger by the users of it to have new drawings to color I knew waiting over 2 years to release another book would be too long. So instead I decided to finish 25 drawings to be included in Volume 2 and release the book in half the time. I choose animals species that intrigued me to draw, posed challenges to color for the users with the animals intricate details, and many animals that are endangered or threatened. Some of my very favorite animals like elephants, chameleons and owls that were in volume 1 I choose to do other species of the same animal to show their amazing diversity.


So after a year in the making I am so happy to announce that “Intricate Ink Animals In Detail Volume 2” is now available to order, color, and enjoy! Many of the animals in Volume 2 were suggestions from the users of Volume 1. This collaboration between me and the coloring artist has been so wonderful to experience. And I am so proud of the beautiful and extremely high-quality books that Pomegranate Communications of Portland, Oregon has published and produced for me. They are the leaders in publishing artist books and merchandise, and it shows in their care to create such a beautifully packaged hardcover casebound book printed with thick interior paper. It's perfect for coloring with any medium you can imagine.

An animal lover's coloring community is born!


After my first book was published last January an extremely talented nature photographer and colorist, Jo Warren, contacted me and asked me if I had thought about setting up a Facebook Coloring Group to have a home to bring all the users of my books together. It was truly a brilliant idea, and now after a year of the group being established the members have grown to over 7 thousand! Along with Jo’s amazing administration skills and my desire to interact directly with the coloring artist, it has become a coloring community where colorists can be inspired by other’s work, share ideas and tips about coloring, learn facts about the animals that I draw, enter contests for prizes, and watch the progress of new drawings and projects as I create them. 

Creating a Circle of Creativity

Having this direct contact with the users of my book from all around the world, many that have become social media friends, is a truly incredible way of becoming inspired myself. This creative environment really motivates me like nothing I have ever encountered before. These coloring artists are incredibly talented thinkers and constantly amaze me with their work! Seeing the vast and imaginative ways they finish my drawings with color is extremely creative and motivates me to continue the collaborative circle by producing more drawings for them. I owe so much of my creative drive over the last few years directly to their support, and want to personally thank them for it. I hope everyone enjoys coloring the new animals from Volume 2 as much as I had creating them! Happy coloring to all!


Below are a few of my drawings for the book as I created them









The Color Proofs from the Printer

The first advanced copy from Pomegranate

Thanks to all the colorists who's support made these books become a reality!


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Tim Jeffs is an American artist best known for his intricate and highly detailed drawings of animals. He has received global attention for his artwork, and his artwork has sold worldwide in more than 15 countries. Using only black ink pens and colored pencils he continues to bring animals to life through his ongoing series of portrait illustrations. His drawings capture even the smallest details of each animal’s fur, skin texture, and patterns. His artwork and his love of animal conservation has lead Tim to help raise animal awareness and research funding for well known organizations and conservation groups.

His works can be seen at:




Saturday, May 7, 2016

Tranquil or Vivid? Pick Your Mood

Tombow Irjiten Colored Pencils Review

by Tim Jeffs

Barred Owl Colored Pencil drawing 

Being an nature artist that works extensively in colored pencils, I have to admit, I have never used Tombow products before, but I'm always game to try new colored pencils. So when Tombow asked me to review their latest products I thought what better way to really test them out than to do a drawing exclusively using them. With my most recent drawing of a Barred Owl, I'll explain my experience drawing with these pencils in depth. 

ORDER THEM HERE:


Irojiten Colored Pencil Set, Vivid
http://shrsl.com/pzux

Irojiten Colored Pencil Set, Tranquil


The pencil I used on this drawing were the newly released Tombow Irjiten Colored Pencil sets. 2 sets to be exact. The Vivid and Tranguil Adult Coloring Sets. Each set comes with 12 colors, a sharpener, and a sand pencil eraser. 

My first impression is that these sets have a very nice grouping of colors. With only 12 pencils each, each set is thoughtfully arranged into 2 distinguished palettes. The Tranquil set includes lighter soft colors and the Vivid has brighter, intense, and darker colors. For this drawing I used both sets. I picked a subject where I could try both sets on one drawing. Because of the softer colors of the owl's feathers, I drew the majority of the time with the colors from the Tranquil set, but used the darker colors from the Vivid set for my owls bold eyes, which require a deep dark look.

Fit and Feel

The round shape and the smooth enamel finish sat very nicely in my hand. I draw for long periods of time and tend to squeeze my pencils tight, and they remained very comfortable over long stretches of drawing. This drawing took around 40 hours to complete, and these pencils never bothered my hands or fingers during this long period.

Testing the Tips

I love detail. Extreme detail. My drawing style consists of very fine lines, so I prefer pencils that hold a very sharp point when they are sharpened, and won't break under pressure. I'm pretty hard on my pencils, and have a heavy hand, and I was pleasantly surprised how strong the lead was, and how sharp the tips remained. They never broke in my electric pencil sharpener, and always sharpened to a very fine point. As I drew the fine lines of the feathers, I found the sharpened tips remained sharp for long periods of time before I needed to re-sharpen them. They are not quite as hard as Primacolor Verithin pencils, but I would say they come in a very close second. And unlike the Verithins the color was more vibrant and laid down much easier.

Coloring Basics

I found the color blending of the pencils smooth, and layering down and building up colors easy to achieve. The eyes of my owl are extremely dark, and I found slowly building the dark blues and reds up was very easy to do. And unlike other pencils, I didn't run into any waxy build up. The Tranquil set was perfect for the softer colors of my owl feathers and body. With a wide variety of pastel colors that blended nicely to create a soft fluffy and feathery look.

Since I own and use a reliable electric pencil sharpener I didn't use the hand sharpener that was included in the set, but it's a nice addition for someone who needs one. The sand eraser came in very useful. I liked how it worked so much that it replace the eraser I've been using for years, which wasn't as effective.


Finished Piece

Over all I was extremely happy drawing with these 2 set of pencils, and they were the only pencils I need to complete this drawing. I will definitely continue to use them on future drawings, and recommend them to the novice colorist or the experienced artist.

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Tim Jeffs is an American artist best known for his intricate and highly detailed drawings of animals. He has received global attention for his artwork, and his artwork has sold worldwide in more than 15 countries. Using only black ink pens and colored pencils he continues to bring animals to life through his ongoing series of portrait illustrations. His drawings capture even the smallest details of each animal’s fur, skin texture, and patterns. His artwork and his love of animal conservation has lead Tim to help raise animal awareness and research funding for well known organizations and conservation groups.

His works can be seen at:

A book of 50 of his animal drawings has been published and is available as an adult coloring book through Pomegranate Communications, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
Intricate Ink Animals in Detail. Coloring book, 108 pages with 50 animal images