On Going

I've discovered that it is rather hard to take a picture of a canvass painting done with acrylics with a flash camera at night! I've also decided that I'm not to bright when it comes to thinking things through before starting a project - once I paint all the foliage, I'm not convinced that the Jaguar will be easily seen...

Lesson learned - when picking subject colours, make sure there is a moderate amount of 'pop'.

Jaguar gets a tree!

I finally got a chance to go get some burnt umber paint and started laying some colour on this canvass, so at least the poor Jaguar has a half coloured tree! I know that it's far from perfect, but layer by layer - slowly but surely it will all come together.

Maybe if I can get out of work quick enough tomorrow I will be able to get the rest of the tree finished (at least the branches).

First layer of Paint

Step one: Buy a canvass - Oh good God! You really want how much for that piece of fabric stretched onto a frame?!? It gets cheaper the bigger it gets? How do you figure? What do you mean "Go big or go home"? Can I go medium? Really... the canvass is still that much?

Step two: Decide what you are going to paint - Darcy, what should I paint? What do you mean you don't know? Here's a bunch of ideas... pick one. Oh gee, it was a really big stretch to pick the Jaguar! What about the Black Bear? Oh fine! Where's the picture of that bloody cat again?

Step three: Quick sketch your subject onto the canvass. Don't screw up, you can't erase that!

Step four: Figure out what base colour you want to start with and jump right in. Ya' right! I start with jacking up the music, and dancing around to Barenaked Ladies singing "Chimpanzees", but pick what ever turns your crank.

As you can see I'm only on step four, but slowly but surely it will progress.

Art - Sort Of!

Most of you know that when the mood hits I will put lead (charcoal, grafite or some type of pencil) to paper....

...but recently I have felt that I need to go outside my comfort zone and try colour! Of course my first painting was of Zebras, so I guess I can't say I strayed far from my comfort zone - but baby steps, baby steps! (at least there was green grass!)

I am now onto my next project, here it is set up in my studio...

This is where my inspiration came from...

... and here is the start of my project, as it progresses, I will post more pictures. Don't laugh, I'm not a painter!

It's hard to tell but I have rough sketched some outlines on the canvass... I think you would need to click on the picture and see the large size to actually see it.

This will be for Darcy, and I really hope that Robert Bateman doesn't get mad!