Use Van Dyke brown to show the outer edges of the ear and begin the inner shadow by adding a little black to darken. Although the original photograph appears to show the stripes of the tiger as black, if you look closely you will see that they are generally a dark brown. Add a little more black into the inside of the ear and rub in gently with your finger.

Add the hairs with zinc white, wiping the tip of the pencil after each stroke to clean it. Flick the hairs to make them look natural, altering the thickness along their lengths.

Add the white fur on the head close to the ear then draw the stripes on the left-side of the head gently using Van Dyke brown.

1. Before moving on, I increased the depth of the stripes by applying Van Dyke brown a little heavier and added a small amount of black to deepen part of the stripes.

2. Add zinc white where shown and a little blue grey in the shadowed areas. If areas look a little muddy, add more zinc white.

Where shadow is required, apply light grey gently. Blend at the edges into the white using your finger or a blender very gently.

1. To add the first eye begin with a black ring around the ball of the eye then fill the eye with smyrna blue and add glacier blue over the top.

2. For the pupil use black as solidly as possible with a dot of zinc white to finish.

3. To create a shadow under the top eyelid gently apply black then add zinc white line over the top of the Van Dyke brown around the edge of the eye.

Using the photograph as reference, begin adding the fur in stripes down the left side of the picture. The head on the left of the picture is the lighter side of the animal, but there are still quite a number of shadowy patches to contend with. Use zinc white for the base and individual hairs, Van Dyke brown for the stripes, a little black to darken the stripes and a small amount of sanguine dark for the shadowy stripe on the far left of the face.

To add the ear on the right of the picture begin by applying a line of Van Dyke brown around the outside of the ear. Apply zinc white on the top left of the ear and add a solid black centre. Carefully rub in and, by dragging with your finger, make the start of the shadow on the ear, ready for the zinc white hairs.

1. Finish the second ear by adding fine hair using zinc white. Don’t forget to touch the ends of the hairs gently to fade them into the shadow.

2. I then made some adjustments on the stripes under the ear as I noticed I had made one or two a bit too long. But that’s the joy of these pastel pencils – alterations can be made very easily with them.

1. It is now time to add the second eye and to make a start on the top of the nose. Add the black line around the eye first and complete the eye using smyrna blue and glacier blue over the top. For the pupil add black as solidly as possible with a dot of zinc white to finish. Try to ensure that the dot on the eye is looking at you, as you don’t want to have a cross-eyed tiger.

2. Use glacier blue in dots to show the short hair on the shadowed part of the nose then add light grey over the top and gently dab with your finger to soften the effect.

1. Continue down the nose, using the same colours over a zinc white base. Add touches of black to darken areas that can be seen on the photograph. Notice how the blue on the right side of the nose is too strong and in danger of being the only thing you see when looking at the picture, but I know I can alter it a little later.

2. Detail the end of the nose using sanguine light and zinc white. Add black to show a little of the nostrils. As the tiger is turned slightly, the nostril on the right side of the picture is a little more visible.

3. Add the follicles for the whiskers using Van Dyke brown and black, but don’t apply the whiskers yet.

1. The head can now be finished and a start made on the chest. Be careful with the stripes around the right side of the picture, but with care and by keeping the zinc white pencil clean and sharp, they will fall into place.

2. If necessary, tone down the blue on the right side of the nose by applying dots of dark grey then black and gently dab with a finger. The idea is not to completely remove the blue, but to moderate it.

3. Add the white chin showing the black of the mouth through the hairs to complete the mouth. Show a shadow around the chin to help it stand away from the body.

4. The body of the tiger is just a copy of the stripes on the head, but with longer hair. Take care to ensure the hairs are going in the right direction.

The sky area

1. Begin the background at the top left of the picture by applying black heavily then rubbing gently with your finger. Apply old rose dark softly along the base of the black and rub gently. Drag the rose down a little.

2. Near the top, lay light grey very evenly and as solid as possible and gently rub in from left to right to make it as smooth as possible.

3. In the top section of the left of the picture, apply a small amount of old rose dark and rub in to the light grey so only the hint of purple is left.

4. Towards the bottom left, above the grass, rub a little ivory in to the light grey to give slightly lighter effect.

5 The right side has more light grey with just a little glacier blue rubbed in. Blend gently above the tiger’s head to avoid a line dividing the colours.

The grass

1. Apply the grass using a combination of colours. Begin on the left side with light strokes of black covered with old rose dark, but leave some of the black exposed. Then flick in zinc white and ivory and finish with zinc white dots.

2. Add the hazy twig in the background by gently applying black and dabbing with a finger to make it almost disappear.

3. Add the black twigs with a very sharp black.

4. Add zinc white dots into the foliage. To make the dots easier, use the corner of a zinc white pastel stick.

The finished painting

White Tiger, Cretacolor Fine Art Pastel Pencils on Ingres mountboard in colour sea breeze, (27x20.5cm)

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Want to paint more wild animals?

Draw a mountain gorilla in pastel pencils with Martin Aveling.

Learn to paint an Amur leopard in watercolour with Ruth Buchanan

Learn to paint an elephant in watercolour with Kerry Bennett

Draw an elephant in graphite with Jamie Boots