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                                                                Long Way Down                                                                       9"x12"                                                              Pastel/Sanded Paper I love when a picture paints itself, not that it happens often, but when it does, it is magical.  That's is what this picture has done, in just a few hours I looked up and it was complete.  Oh yes, I will put it on the board and look at it and maybe tweak, but essentially I was looking to blow off steam and work on something without getting all tight about it.  My thanks goes to Margaret Stockdale who did a picture with a vivid background, that gave me the idea to try let and pull out all the color stops.  I went back to pastel on sanded paper, threw in the color and let it fall as it may.  I am happy with the result as I got my "red hot" sky, reflections that I am happy with and the giraffe pattern came through pretty well. 

Here is a just fun piece, wanted to just let loose today and do a pastel as I have been spending so much time working on learning oil.  Just get dusty!! So here is Long Way Down, 9"x12", pastel, on terracotta color sanded paper.  I saw on PMP an artist who used a similar vivid background around a cow and it gave me the idea to try this - really added a bunch of life to the subject and drew your eye.  I wanted to make you feel the hot African day.  When we were at the Birmingham zoo I took a photo of a baby giraffe who was bending down like this, never thought about how difficult and creative they have to be to just get a drink.  I am using a couple of additional reference photos from PMP, Kathryn Hansen has the best spot work photo.  The big challenges in this piece will be getting the intricate pattern on the coat and also trying to get the glaze of the water in the mud - plus I wanted to see if that "red hot" sky could work.  I am thinking this is going to b

Still working on my wolf.  I kind of reverted and got in some bolder strokes where the hair gets longer, on the body.  Put washes over the individual short hair work I had started with.  So am thinking that now I will go back in and selectively add more hair on top of the base in the face.  This will highlight or emphasize areas and should help to give more depth and dimension at least if you see it close up.  I did not use Liquin for the washes, but tried to use the thinner I am using and it really didn't get as thin a coat or as transparent as the Liquin does.  So learned in the future to stick with the Liquin if I don't want to totally obliterate the work below.  Thanks much for stopping by and hope you will have a wonderful weekend, TGIF!!

Am making progress on my wolf and he is slowly coming to life.  I am finding that I end up and add multiple layers to try to get the salt and pepper look of his fur.  I also haven't fully figured out the ratio of thinner to the oil to make it run but still leave opaque color, but think I am getting the rhythm of doing the fur and am kind of clustering it and then coming back in with a dark or light to break it up.  Boy thought glad I have a great reference photo as the fur really goes in all direction on this wolf - more so than I have encountered before with other furred animals. I am also making progress on my tiger and will show him below.  Because it is not a close crop on the face it is a bit more intricate and is taking just a bit longer, but I have also learned the valuable lesson to let oils dry, especially if you don't want them to blend - like black and white ending up in gray instead of crisp color.   Sorry we are in another rainy spell for days on end, so pics a

Well I am in hogs heaven because I have so many pictures going right now, and about to start another pencil drawing (going back to one of my first loves), that no matter what media or subject I want I have something to work on.   Well realize after I said that I better get something going in pastel. Again of all the animals I have done I haven't done a wolf and you certainly can't be a wildlife painter and not do one of these animals.  They are revered, hated, arbitrarily killed, vicious, great pack hunters, pack lovers and smart.  How can you not want to do this animal? I again am experimenting again in oil with trying to do another technique.  This method does the hair literally one by one.  You can see I have the base coat in and now I am going back and trying to layer in the fur.  Has taken me a couple of tries to figure it out.  Sara Stribbling and a couple of other artists make it look soooo simple - well NOT.  This is so funny, I think, but Sara's father, also

This is another picture of Mike the LSU mascot for a friend.  This time it is an 11"x14" oil on canvas and incorporates the LSU stadium as well as the cat.  Buildings aren't my forte, so I have it roughed in somewhat and will definitely go back and make some tweaks.  Just am getting the base tones on Mike.  Wanted to have some darker tones as much of him is going to be in dappled light.  Just playing around here with impressions of foliage and grasses with all the tight detail being on the cat.  I am hoping it will keep him as the primary focus. Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great week.

Here is an update on my painting Running Horse.  We are having another gray rainy day, after such a nice little taste of Spring, so I am indoors and can't get a really good shot.   I learned a lot on this painting - like I got a lot more to learn.  Painted the Indian's hair yesterday and let it dry overnight, but when it is damp/rainy paint dries a whole lot slower - hmmmm, duh!!  Oh yeah, and white seems to dry the slowest.   So when I did the Liquin glaze, I got smear and then eventually it took off the white hairs, so I had to do some repainting on the Indian but I think I do like the stronger color.  I used a blue/black Liquin glaze covering the original acrylic background (what a learning experience as it tends to streak and really shows stop and start brush strokes).   It is very reflective, so some of the background variation you see really isn't there.                                                              HELP  PLEASE!! However I think I'd like s

Today's exercise was to try to get back to working faster and looser and just have some fun.  I feel like I have gotten back to taking so much time to do a picture.  So yesterday I found several photos that I liked from PMP and thought I would take a stab at this buffalo/bison in the snow.  Yep going to shoot for another snow picture, but this one is in oil so will splatter snowfall after I get this in.  Know you aren't supposed to do acrylic over oil, but think I am going to try to see if the splatter will stick as I can really make that liquid, which I haven't figured out how to get that consistency with the oils, maybe have to go with trup, to go on the toothbrush.  So what I have pretty much here is a rough in with the buffalo's coat actually the way it probably will be left, just need to work the head.  And then the background needed to dry so I can glaze out the trees that are there, than add another ligher area of closer line of trees, and finally the big tree

Ok guys, this is where I am getting a bit apprehensive and feeling a bit vulnerable.  This is the point where you can really start to see where this is going and I am hoping that you all feel this is going to work.  My biggest fear is that they won't read/connect into one image.  As you can now see the connection is between the indian's blowing hair and the horses tail.  Maybe I need to lengthen the horses tail?              Does it work - let me know your thoughts.              Also my first thought was to keep the indian misty-like without any color so he reads                    ghostly-spirit like,  again your thoughts? Thanks much for stopping by and your honest comments will be much appreciated.

I have a love/hate relationship with my computer.  It tends to just stop and freeze and do nothing so I then do something rash and end up, like now, am waiting for it to do something while I post this via iPad.   It appears when I forced it off this time I really made it unhappy as I have the black screen and white letter and techie talk stuff happening, so .....    Been thinking of a new one and I might have blown it up so may have no choice now.  This is a huge painting for me, 20"x20" and I think I am getting the base coat In  fairly well on the horse.  Got to add  and refine the mane and tail.  The tail placement especially is integral to making this work.  Once it is I place I can go to work on the Indian.  I think I am going to have to do some final tweak blending so I can  get rid of some of the hard edges but still show the color changes I want.   Feels kind of like a paint by number right now.   Overall I want this guy to read as a big beast, full of strength, p