Zebra's Laughing Out Loud - WIP

We went to a wildlife park near Sedona, AZ called "Out of Africa". They have this one area called the Serengeti safari where you drive thru in an open bus. At one point we stopped and some Zebras came up to the bus to get their treats. It struck me funny because it seemed as if they were laughing. I got several photos of them but not one of them was what I would call a great picture.

Photo #1

As you can see here two of the Zebras look pretty good but the one in the back isn't in the best position. Also the one in the front really isn't laughing, his mouth is closed.







Photo #2


On this photo the Zebra in the front has his mouth parcially opened. I liked that better than the front Zebra in photo #1.







Photo #3

Here is a pretty good photo but the Zebra is all by himself and I liked the idea of having three of them together.








Final Reference Photo

So..... started with photo number one in Photoshop. I erased everything except the two front Zebras. Then I took just the mouth of the front Zebra in Photo number two and placed it over the mouth of the front zebra (now he has his mouth open). Then I erased everything except the Zebra in Photo number three and added what was left in the back of this version of the Zebras. Then I found a sky picture I and added that in the background. And.... Voila!!! I now have more of what I was looking for. I will use this reference for my drawing.

As I mentioned in my last post, I will be using the Art Board with the Hot Press Arches watercolor paper mounted on it. I will start drawing my contour drawing on the Art board tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Oh.... and the title of this piece will be "LOL".