Dougalis Wildlifeart-Life studies-Portraits

Looking for new subjects and challenges and since I felt more confident to try out new mediums on the spot, I thought that the use of coloured pencils could be the next step forwards after a long period of black-white sketching. Someone suggested then to visit the "Alpen Zoo" in Innsbruck-Austria, which I did and never regret it. The Capercailies I saw for the first time in life there, became one of my favorite birds and still are....

It was 1999. At this point of time I "discovered" the first raptor-collection close to Munich. This first encounter filled me with excitement and it was just the begin of many visits and many drawings on the "spot" to come.. A travel exhibition of alive European reptiles in our zoo gave good opportunities to make several studies..

Still working oudoors in the zoo, and feeling more familiar with my models, I tried out to find suitable mediums to work with, and experimented with the BIC ballpoint pens now. I found the yellow one with its fine point ideal to depict textures like Fur, feathers and branches, as well to achieve the wished results working on gradualy changing shadow-tones . It was the begin of a new period of experiments , the "Ballpoint pen" period... A step forward in the development process..