New drawing - Lioness - Part 1

Today I felt it was time to start a new piece. This one isn't too big, which is great as I've started getting quite alot of pain in my right arm again. Total size approx. 9" x 10" inches... or thereabouts - haven't decided yet how big I will go around the main subject.

So after a doctors visit to sort out a hospital appointment to try to get it sorted out, it was back home to settle into a late rainy afternoon of drawing.

This is my subject that I am going to work on.

It's an Asiatic Lion, which I took several photographs for my art reference folder. 

I chose this one as it felt a little more majestic than the others I had, a few were really cute and I didn't really feel like they contained the 'awe' factor that a lions image should portray. 

So, having decided on the photograph I desaturated the image for ease of drawing and drew the lioness using a 3B pencil and a mechanical pencil.

Then I was going to scan it to show it before beginning the coloring. But, I got carried away and started filling in the base colors for the nose before remembering - whoops :)

Anyway, here is the image, drawn and nose partly done (colored pencils).

Next I will begin to color more in the colored pencils. This will be completed using colored pencils and either gouache or acrylics.