The Grass is Always Greener

My torn muscle has kept me away from the computer for a while as I need to keep my leg elevated, so my blog has suffered, but the swelling is a little better today so I'm back.

There is a double meaning to today's title, on the one hand it is the working title of a wildlife work in progress, on the other it refers to someone 'borrowing' my name and art.

Last week I was alerted to the fact that 8 of my images had been posted on DeviantArt by someone using my name. I was upset, more by the use of my name than my art, as I fully accept there was no intention to sell my work, just use it to get attention.
I was also, to put it mildly, simply furious and emailed several online friends to tell them what had happened. The instant support I got from my friends in the on line art community was wonderful and helped me through a difficult few hours. Several people posted comments on DA identifying the artwork as belonging to me, and my great friend Katherine Tyrrell highlighted my problem in her blog, see www.makingamark.blogspot.com
I complained to DA, and have to commend them for the almost instant response to my email, they removed my artwork and banned the person who had posted it.
End of story, well almost, I'm still unhappy that this person used my name and have to wonder why they didn't create their own artwork to share, perhaps the 'grass is always greener' It did make me wonder if I should continue to post my work online, but I decided the benefits far outweigh the risks.

Back to my artwork, this is a coloured pencil portrait of four Zebra, three looking one way, one the other, hence 'the grass is always greener'
It is on Arches hot press watercolour paper and is approximately 16 x 8 inches. I wanted to do something a little bit different rather than just a Zebra portrait.
My focus will hopefully be on the Zebra facing the viewer, but it might be a while before I get there, the stripes tend to form one blurry mass when I've worked on them for a while.
I'm creating the black by layering the following Prismacolour pencils, Cloud Blue, Deco Orange, Light Blue, Pumpkin Orange, Grape, Indigo Blue then Polychromos Soft Black. I am burnishing some areas with the Cloud Blue. The white is mainly Derwent Signature, Rutile White which I use a lot as it it is a thick creamy white when layered heavily.
coloured pencil
wildlife portrait
painting