Elephant close up

I have been working on animals lately, and this is the most recent addition to that collection:

Years ago, before I began painting with watercolors, my artwork was really limited to graphite.  In this painting, I sketched the head of the elephant for only a few minutes, to get the proportions.  The rest of the time was spent sweeping the paper with my brush- emphasizing the darker areas, and adding water in other areas to thin out the paint.

The tusk is just peaking out at the bottom of the page.  I used Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black in this painting.