You may have noticed I jump around a lot.... I tend to paint based on my feelings and what inspires me, so I always have more than one work in progress going on at a time.
I do not always find time to paint or post on this site with the crazy life we have sometimes, always busy doing something when i'm not working. In fact, I am posting this while at the teenagers volleyball practice. I definitely need time to paint to keep my sanity after a long day working on way too many projects, dealing with demanding customers (some who are not very nice I might add) and now more hip issues to work through - hopefully not another surgery though some time off work would be nice lol.
Anyway....
I have so many art reference photos saved, between the ones I downloaded from wildlife reference photos and the numerous ones I downloaded from unsplash.com which is another royalty free photo site with free 'do what you want with' photos. The giraffe in the photo above was downloaded from unsplash.
Thomas Merton
“ Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time .”
Side note....my husband just texted me to tell me The Loop was bought out and we are losing our favorite classic rock station, BOOOO!! Who is going to play Guns N Roses for me now while I drive???
Back on topic here...I started with a sketch study using conte crayon, just to get a feel for the composition and to get some practice (ok fine, I just wanted to draw in my new wildlife only sketch book)
Once I had it drawn out, I started to throw some paint down based on the color values using the photo, and the drawing I did as a reference
Henri Matisse
“ Creativity takes courage. ”
I just kept applying the different shades with large brush strokes until I liked what I saw, then went in and added some detail.
I think I must have messed with the nostrils a thousand times before I was finally happy, the rest came together more naturally though. The wrinkles I just kind of added some lines with white and outlined with a brown barely blending them, the lashes worked out just the same and actually I love the way the eye turned out as a whole.
Now I have to tell you, as a business analyst I have a tendency to over think things sometimes (I actually do my best when 'm not thinking much at all) so I couldn't help but wonder if this piece was missing something. But, rather than just adding, I decided to post it on this new Facebook Group I joined to get the opinion of some other awesome artists. Turns out she was fine just the way she was.
I did also do some work on the lioness, it's not turning out the way I expected so I will end up getting back to her when i'm ready....for now, an update because who would I be if I didn't document the failures?
The eyes are way too big aren't they? Or maybe the nose needs to be brought further down..