Reaching Out

                                                                    Reaching Out
                                                                        8"x10"
                                                                       Acrylic
Here is the last two day's experiment.  I wanted to do a study of a baby elephant because I want to give an 11"x14" elephant for a baby present.  The baby's nursery is done in grays and elephants are the Mom's favorite.  So I thought I would try working with a medium, something I haven't done previously.  You can see below where I used modeling paste where it would accentuate the wrinkles.  Didn't work exactly as I thought, and I ended up using a cut up plastic card to try to get darker color into the grooves.   But  I really like how it makes the ear look more 3D.  I took some literary license too, as I was working from a wonderful reference photo by Angeline Rijkeboer of PMP , and her little one was just covered in terra cotta red dust and, well, I really didn't want a red elephant.  The really little babies have long black hairs on their bodies, not sure at what age that goes away. 
Here you can see the paste buildup and see that I changed out the background, using a yellow glaze over all the previous colors so that the background wouldn't compete with the elephant and yes, I still have a long way to go when working with abstract.  Jane, I need some of your magic dust to get them right!!!  But the yellow turned the purples and blues to green.
Comments always welcome and much appreciated.
Anyway, practice makes it better, so more to go.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

Comments

Mellowood Gallery said…
Well done! The texture on the trunk and ear look great and I like the greenish background - good luck with the larger piece
July 11, 2015 at 11:43 AM
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