Found this early gem of a sketch of Kaa from Disney’s The Jungle Book when sorting through my folders. It really shows my early progress as an illustrator. I was experimenting with mixing fine-liner pens for outlines and watercolour pencils for the colour, a technique I still fondly use today. The initial sketch of Kaa was doodled on notepaper during an English Literature lecture (sorry!) and, when I got home, I drew it larger and used my watercolour pencils to shade it.
I first started using watercolour pencils after my Mum saw how seriously I was taking my drawings, before I had even made it into double digits. I still use those pencils today and they have been used well over the years and now make up only a small fraction of my ever growing collection. I enjoy discovering the effects that I can produce with the pencils and developing my own techniques and creative style.
The memory of completing this illustration still makes me smile today. I love looking back at my previous work and seeing how far I have come.