Animal Expression, The Finale (at least for now)

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This has been a fun, and instructive, series for me and I’ll definitely be doing more of this kind of thing for my own study work.

Most of the drawings I’ve done for the previous posts were done fairly quickly, generally 30 minutes or less. For today, I’ve done more finished drawings, once again using the Wolff Carbon pencil on vellum bristol.

The idea for these was to use all the features of the subject, including gesture for the full body drawings, to capture its character and essence.

camel-headFor a Bactrian camel head study, I looked for reference with a 3/4 view, but most of what I have didn’t seem like it would draw well because the position of the features is so odd. Time was limited, so I stayed with a classic profile that shows his calm, unexcitable nature. My husband and I got to sit with a large group of camels at Arburd Sands when we were in Mongolia and I could practically feel my blood pressure drop as I sat and sketched them.

hyena-headThe body of this spotted hyena got too big, so I cropped her at the shoulders, which gives a different look than the camel above, in which the drawing trails off in value, number of lines and amount of detail. I find hyenas interesting and compelling on a number of levels. They live in a matriarchal clan structure, will go to war with lions and move a lot faster than you think they can with their gallumping, awkward gait. The African night wouldn’t be the same without their crazy whooping and insane giggling.

coyote-runningI love the flow of the pose I captured at Yellowstone as this coyote ran parallel to the road in nice morning light. The head demonstrates that you can get a lot of character without a lot of detail if you make your marks carefully, see the shapes correctly and don’t get hung up in drawing individual hairs.

gorilla-headThis drawing and the next one ended up too big to scan, so they were photographed and then processed in Photoshop. They were done on white paper, but I kind of like the toned effect. In any case, I’ve rarely done primates, but I got some incredible reference of the gorillas the last time I was at the San Francisco zoo and have been looking forward to seeing what I could do with it. The big silverback male was on morning patrol and he didn’t miss a thing.

warthog1Sometimes a subject serves itself up on a silver platter and is so compelling that the artist’s job is to simply not mess it up. I found warthogs to be, pound for pound, THE most entertaining animal I saw in Kenya. This one was at Lewa Downs, grazing near the lodge we stayed at. He’s got it all: great ears, that remarkable face and the solid body carried by relatively delicate-looking legs and feet.

Mongolia Monday- Painting Mongolia Subjects

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I thought that I would start to share how I put my Mongolia paintings together, starting with a subject from Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve. I had never been to a place anything like it and before I began any finished gallery paintings, I needed to learn to paint the various elements, both the land and the animals. Here are two studies of the rocks, one of a young ibex and a finished 15×30 of two argali-

Ikh Nart Rocks #1 oil 12x16
Ikh Nart Rocks #1 oil 12x16
Ikh Nart Sunrise 11x14 oil
Ikh Nart Sunrise 11x14 oil
Young Ibex 9x12 oil
Young Ibex 9x12 oil
Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Argali 15x30 oil (price on request)
Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Argali 15x30 oil (price on request)

Since most people are not familiar either with the species or the  place, I wanted this first painting to show the kind of landscape that argali like; not just mountains, but upland areas with these rocky outcroppings. You can see the steppe down below and off in the distance. These were two rams who were spending at least part of the day together. It turns out that argali don’t form permanent harems or herds. Animals of all ages and both genders group and re-group throughout the day in numbers, at least from what I saw, from one to twenty or so and everything in between.

EBay Listing 4-6-09- Sunny Summer Day- still available

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Sunny Summer Day 6x8 oil on canvasboard
Sunny Summer Day 6x8 oil on canvasboard

Buy it now for $40 here

Art Show Promoter Warning

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I have gotten permission from the President of the Society of Animal Artists to post this message that she sent by email to all of the members today. If you have had a bad experience at a wildlife art show or not been able to get a refund from a show you had to pull out of, please contact me.

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ATTENTION Fellow SAA Members!

It has recently been brought to my attention that there is an unscrupulous promoter who is targeting wildlife artists.  Several of our members have complained about the lack of promotion for these shows, the failure of the promoter to provide refunds for their fees even when they canceled months in advance, etc.  Some of the artists have even said they have been threatened with legal action just because they were attempting to get refunds.  So please BEWARE of promotions for shows you’ve never heard of, in locations which would probably not be great for sales even in the best of economic times.  Don’t be afraid to check with your fellow artists to see if they are familiar with a promoter, or a specific show.  And ask for references from artists IF you consider signing up for a show.  Don’t accept just one or two references; ask for the entire list of artists who have previously participated in one of the promoter’s shows!  Be very, very cautious!  None of us can afford to pay large amounts for booth fees, and the costs of a hotel, etc., to participate in a show that isn’t going to be productive for us.

Some Red Flags:
·         A large upfront payment required
·         No written refund policy for cancellations
·         Entry and booth fees, but no commission – The promoter has no “skin in the game” which could lead to little or no promotion.
·         Promoter unwilling to provide names of artists who have shown at previous shows or data on sales and attendances of previous shows
·         First time shows – Even though every show has to have a first time, check to see if the promoter has had successful shows elsewhere.

Animal Expression, Part 5: Eyes

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There’s a saying, referrring to humans,  that “the eyes are the windows to the soul”. I believe this is every bit as true for animals. Now, whether or not, in the religious sense, animals literally have something that could be called a soul, is a question I’ll leave to others. But in the sense of consciousness, sentience, “isness”, I believe that absolutely. Animals experience emotions such as happiness, grief, depression, hopefulness and silliness, feel pain, form a wide variety of relationships, communicate with each other within and across species, teach and acquire wisdom and culture, use tools and, in some cases, clearly demonstrate self-awareness in the human sense. They have as much right to a safe and decent life on this planet as we do.

Whatever it is that vanishes from an animal’s eyes when it dies, before that point, there was an individual someone at home in there.

That is my starting point for drawing and painting animals. And so, in a sense, the “eyes” have it. I often do the eyes first and, not infrequently, there is my subject looking back at me. I’ve even been known to say out loud “Well, hello there.”

Here are five drawings of eyes, using the Wolff Carbon pencils on vellum bristol. I did a little something different with a simple border, an idea that I picked up from fellow student when I was in art school. It lets simple designed compositions occur instead of just having the drawing randomly trail off.giraffe-eye

A reticulated giraffe that I photographed in the Samburu, 2004

cosimo-eyeA Holsteiner stallion, who I did a portrait commission of year before last.

bighorn-eyeA bighorn sheep ewe from the Denver Zoo.

serval-eyeA serval, also from the Denver Zoo.

cat-eyesAnd our own dear tabby girl, Persephone, aka The Princess.

EBay Listing- 3-30-09- ROOSTER- SOLD!

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Rooster 12x12 oil on canvasboard
Rooster 12x12 oil on canvasboard

Mongolia Monday

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kt-takhi-boys1I’m going to start posting drawings of various subjects since, after all, I am an artist, not a photographer or book reviewer. Today’s drawing is of two young takhi stallions that I photographed at Khomiin Tal, the third takhi reintroduction site after Gobi B and Hustai Nuruu. It is located in the Zavkhan province or aimag, which is in western Mongolia. I read on one of the Mongolian news websites that the herders out there lost 250,000 livestock over the winter. I haven’t found any info on the takhi, but I know that people stay out at the research camp and feed them if necessary. Twenty-two horses were initially shipped to Khomiin Tal from a semi-reserve in France which is located at high altitude in the French Alps. I would think that there would be over two dozen horses by now.

These two young guys were “feeling their oats” when I saw them in the morning and were pushing, mouthing and generally harassing each other. What made it nice for me is that they were Doing Something instead of just standing around or grazing with their heads down. Getting reference of wild animals actually moving and behaving naturally is kind of a gold standard in wildlife art. More next week!

Animal Expressions, Part 4- Mouths and Contest Result

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Contest result: No one got all the noses right. The right answers are: grizzly, bison, moose, turkey vulture, elk.  The person who came the closest guessed black bear instead of grizzly because the muzzle wasn’t dished, but nailed all the rest. This may be because it was a young animal. I went back to my reference and took a good look at my pictures of black bear and I think, in fairness, that I didn’t do a good enough job making it clear in my drawing which was which, so I would like to announce that Heather Houlahan is the winner and will be getting a packet of my notecards. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who entered!

On to mouths. After eyes, the mouth may be the most defining part of an animal’s head. These drawings were done with a Venetian Red Derwent Drawing Pencil. They’re kind of waxy, like Conte crayon as opposed to chalkier, for lack of a better term, like hard pastels. The paper is, once again, vellum bristol.

All of today’s examples are from Kenya.

First up, a reticulated giraffe that I photographed in the Samburu, Kenya in 2004.

giraffe-mouth

Giraffe lips, believe it or not, are very interesting. As anyone who has fed a giraffe at a wild animal park knows, the upper lip is extremely flexible, almost prehensile. What is really impressive, however, is that the mouth is so tough that a giraffe can wrap it’s tongue around a very thorny acacia branch, pull it loose, stick it in its mouth and chew it without a second thought or, apparently, getting punctured.

_rhino-lewa1

This is the mouth of a white rhino that I photographed at the Lewa Downs Conservancy, south of the Samburu, also in 2004. Lewa is one of the best places to see these prehistoric-looking beasts. White rhinos, when seen from the front have a square lip. Black rhinos’ lips come to a point. According to Wikipedia, there is no actual evidence that the word “white” is a mis-translation of the Afrikaaner word for “wide”.

cokes-hartebeest-mouthThis is the mouth and muzzle of a Coke’s hartebeest, a large antelope, which I saw in the Masai Mara, Kenya. It has a very long head. When I enlarged the image to see the mouth better, I was struck by how its shape and the shape of the nose flowed together in an almost art nouveau manner. Just the kind of thing I look for.

spotted-hyena-mouthAlso from the Mara, this is the mouth of a spotted hyena. Their jaws are trememdously strong and can break large bones apart. And, as you can see, are filled with teeth. Studies have proved that they hunt at least as much as they scavenge. They live in female-centric “clans” in a defined territory that they defend against anything, even lions. I really enjoyed watching them and hearing them “whoop” at night.

young-lion-muzzleThis is the muzzle of a young lion I saw in the Mara. No scars yet and it has an almost soft quality that will change as he gets older.

Finally, I was out in the safari vehicle at dawn, also in the Mara, when we came upon a lioness who was just waking up. She gave us a REALLY big yawn, got up, stretched and ambled off. Keeping everything lined up and in decent perspective was challenging as you can see from the erasure marks.

lioness-yawning

Next week the eyes have it and then I’ll put it all together.

EBay Listing: 3-23-09- PISMO BEACH MORNING- SOLD!

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Pismo Beach Morning 8x6 oil on canvasboard
Pismo Beach Morning 8x6 oil on canvasboard

Click for more information and to bid here