Emperor penguins and chick in mixed media

Another one that threw me into the deep end. I thought it would be relatively easy but I struggled with the sharp edges due to the texture of the paper (Arches cold press 300lb). I ended up edging with a Caran d'Ache 'Luminance' black pencil in places. Then there was the problem of the colour of the paper which is a light cream and far from snowy, so I brought out the dear old white gouache life saver. The sky was Schmincke Horadam supergranulating 'Glacier Blue' which I actually used thinly over the entire background then later daubed white gouache over to try and achieve a snowy effect. The dark paint used was Winsor and Newton's 'Payne's Grey' and Mijello Mission Gold's 'Ivory Black'.  

I can see all the flaws in the painting, they glare out at my critical self, but I had to stop before I ruined it altogether! I think the hardest thing to paint was the Emperor penguin chick. I'm still unhappy with it. I'm not well versed with painting white objects upon white and I hated the idea of having to define the chick's face using grey. They are fat little things with grey coats but their faces are white surrounded by black. 

One thing you might note is that the adult Emperor penguins don't have eyes in the painting. That's not a mistake. Their eyes are so dark they are almost black (no doubt to protect them against the glare of the sun on snow) and do not often show up in photos. 

I didn't use a single reference photo for this but several; it is a compilation of various copyright free photos put together. At first I was going to paint an egg between the two adult birds but then decided upon a chick looking upward, demanding to be fed. The things those adult penguins go through to feed their chicks, it is hardly surprising they only have one at a time.