NEW African Elephant drawing

Today I've started a new piece of an African elephant mother and calf. This is a piece I've wanted to tackle for a while however due to some colour issues with my computer monitor I'm forced to work only in greyscale at present. This is fine by me as I'm really looking forward to this one!

Lifes colours are so precious these include differing tones of black/white, the skin of an elephant lends wonderfully to a pencil drawing to capture all the wrinkles/textures/folds. I was torn between doing this one as a painting or drawing as I can see so many colours in a seemingly 'grey' animal - perhaps in the future I will revisit it in watercolour too!

The size of the drawing alone will be 16" x 12" which for me is a considerable piece therefore I may be working on several paintings/drawings at the same time to rest certain parts of pressure on the hand and positioning of holding pencils/brushes. First of all I am just quickly sketching out the prominent outlines to work from regarding shapes and wrinkle positioning - I wont be drawing this in detail as I will 'draw' as I go, starting with the mother elephant to minimise risk of smudging where my hand will rest.

The picture will be portrait in orientation therefore at this size it can get a little awkward to work on in parts - I don't make things easy for myself! However I have loosely taped the paper to the same size on some thick foamboard for rigidity - I always pull the paper from its pad and lean it on a 'worktop' of some kind for ease. This is also vital for when doing painting as you don't want to run risk of getting undersheets of paper in the pad wet and warping.

Here is a quick photo of the drawing and how I'm using some tracing paper to protect the lower baby elephant, the small card is just to lean my hand on, you can vaguely make out the composition of the piece.