The first step is to lay out the design on sketch paper. Prior to this it is recommended to look for some good reference material, of course. It is always good to collect pictures, magazines and books to build up your own archives. Living in British Columbia Rob has the good fortune to be able to take photographs of some of the animals by himself.

Once the rough sketch is done he works out the drawing in more detail on a sheet of paper which has the same size as the illustration board he will use for the artwork. To transfer the sketch Rob turns over the drawing, and on the back of the page, retraces the image in reverse with a pencil. He then places the sketch on the illustration board and transfers it by retracing all lines.

The area around the squirrel is masked with frisk-film. Rob started with the eyes. An acetate mask was prepared to airbrush the eyes. The glow was achieved by using an eraser and slightly brushing a transparent ultramarin blue over the whole eye. The final touch was the small highlight which was once again erased (a sharpened pencil eraser works best).

The fur is sprayed freehand with the frisk film still covering the outside areas. Once the film is removed you will get some unnatural sharp edges - as can be seen on the wolve two steps further. Onve the background is finished Rob paints more fur with brushes and coloured pencils - and gets the natural look he wanted.

The mask around the squirrel has been removed and a new one was cut for the trunk. The technique Rob used to get the photorealistic look of the bark is often described as "frottage technique": Cremy acrylic paint is brushed over the trunk using a standard paintbrush. With the paint still being wet a sheet of paper is slightly pressed on the paint and immediately removed. This process is repeated with different colours until a natural look of bark is achieved.

Once the paint has dried Rob uses coloured pencils, holds them in a close angle to the surface and "scrubs" over the structure to make it more visible. It takes time but with some training you will get amazing results.

As previously described the use of mask film (frisk film) will result in sharp edges - as can be clearly seen on this picture showing the finished gray wolve. Rob usually uses loose paper masks while painting in the background. If he uses the airbrush, some overspray may occur but this will help to blend the parts of the painting together.

Rob started with the eyes - again using an acetate mask. The fur was first airbrushed, then erased and once again airbrushed. With coloured pencils, the sharp tip of a scalpel and a stencil burner some finer details are added.

But be careful: "Don't dig trenches", the illustration board is easily damaged. For the scalpel a round, sharp blade is recommended. With some exercise you can work very precise and take only the paint away - not a part of the board.

Painting hair is a repetition of several techniques. The combination of airbrush, brush, pencil, eraser and scalpel is a good way to get an convincing result.

The part of the shoreline which is close to the viewer was nearly completely painted with the paintbrush. With several shades of green the trees were painted, starting with the darkest green for the trees in the background.

Note that the shoreline in the distance seems to be painted with more greyish colours to put it farther away. Well, it has been painted with exactly the same colours - only that they have been oversprayed with a light grey.

The nearly finished shoreline, only some highlights are missing. The airbrush has been used to darken the areas between the trees to get some depth.

The rocks were also painted with the brush, as this gives a more convincing result. And remember: Often less is more! Don't go too much into detail, especially with backgrounds. Sometimes a simple stroke with the brush looks much more realistic than the highly detailed version.

The horns of the deer were covered with frisk film while the wolve was protected with a loose paper mask.

The finished painting. The size of the illustration board is 70 x 100 cm. The professionally framed artwork (done by Wall Street Gallery, West Vancouver) is currently on display at the West Coast Art Gallery in Whistler, British Columbia.

List of materials used:

Support: Crescent artboard, 70 x 100 cm

Paint: Lukas Cryl, Liquitex

Airbrushes: Iwata Micron, H&S Evolution

Masking material: Frisk Film, acetat, paper

Brushes: Da Vinci

Pencils: Faber Castell