Shrimp Mantis study

Was watching a documentary on under later life and this guy really caught my eye.

So colourful and nimble. Can strike an enemy with blinding speed.

I made a point of being deliberate with my strokes in terms of direction, value and colour while keeping things loose. Additionally, I used 100% for the majority of the strokes so that I could enfore this. I've noticed that if you use opacity pressure then you can compromise the form of your subject so thats why I went with 100%.

Wasn't an aim to go for fine detail. Just form, value and colour I would prefer to do that if I'm copying this for reference for a personal piece.

I can already tell where I went too dark and too light. Especially with the eyes and legs.

3 hours approx

Reference from:

http://www.scimix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Mantis-Shrimp.jpg