Getting Back In the Game

Don't get me wrong I love to digitally paint, but man, it felt so good to sketch and color in an actual sketchbook again! I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to sketch/draw so giovanni1205 suggested I draw one of my birds and that I did! Since both my cockatiels are a lutino mix they basically look like twins so I decided to just focus on one. Since Cheesecake is more expressive of the two I choose him. It was a challenge to capture the exact pose I wanted. Anyone who works with animals, especially birds knows that's almost impossible. So I just drew whatever pose he was willing to strike lol. 

I decided to use my forgotten tone paper sketchbook. I love color/shading in tone paper! Something about a built-in middle value to give a drawing an extra boost. I first sketched in pencil of Cheesecake's form. I made sure not to get too detailed. The color and value would provide the necessary detail. Since I wasn't quite sure how to proceed with color on tone paper I made a quick study on scratch paper. It was very helpful because I was able to get this done in few hours. 

If I had to change anything I would have made his eyes a bit smaller and farther apart (in the bottom right image) and I would put more effort in the feet. Admittedly the feet was an afterthought and it shows. For a sketchbook drawing it's not a big deal, but for an illustration piece it's not acceptable.