Saturday 12 March 2011

Presenting 'snow cub' 9"x11.5" oil

This is my first completed animal oil painting of a snow leopard cub,in fact exactly the same cub as i depicted in an earlier pencil drawing.i thought it would make the ideal subject for my first painting.The colours here appear a little more harsh than in real life but you get the idea.For the time being ive caught the oil painting bug and hope to be posting more oils in the not too distant future.hope you all like it.

18 comments:

Karen Kyle Ericson said...

Congrats! He's beautiful. I love the fir. I'm starting back into my watercolors and colored pencils now :) Guess that would be a third blog for me eventually haha. Your work is very inspiring thanks for sharing it.

03ahmed said...

What a fantastic painting! Especially since it is the first one you have completed!

Irfan
www.irfanart.com

Kristin said...

Beautiful painting! The leopard is so lifelike that I feel that I could touch the fur!

Marie Flynn said...

I really like your new oil painting. I love how the light is shinning softly on the cub's face. Very nice work, thanks for showing it.

Unknown said...

thankyou so much for the great reception that youv'e given to my oils,i hope to be able to keep up the standard with successive works.

Laurisa Brandt said...

I almost like the contrast better on the oil than the graphite. (My prefernce of course) The fur detail is amazing!

Bezfaery said...

Wow does the extent of your talents know no end? I had no idea that you could paint too. And so well. Well done xxx

Bezfaery said...

How are you by the way?

I've been off the map for a while so lost touch with all my lovely virtual friends

Unknown said...

hi faye,just hopin it's not beginners luck and that i can follow up this painting with another decent one.nice to hear from you again,i hope your time away has been productive:-)

Unknown said...

Beautiful job Clive

Bezfaery said...

Beginners luck couldn't be that impressive. You're just a very talented man ;)

Partly productive, mainly frustrating. But yeah I am on with a project at the minute. Just started with the waiting game now. I'll let you read my blog though rather than boring you with the details here :P

Fran A.H. Alvarado said...

Great portrait of Snow Leopard. Some days ago I have the luck to see this superb animal at a zoo in Paris. Gorgeous work.
Regards

Andrew said...

clive i am a artist too, your work is amazing:) I do have a question on how you do the wrinkles on your elephants? i love drawing elephants and always find wrinkles difficult.

Ankita Sarkar said...

It's wonderful. Not quite as realistic as your graphite, yes, but I'm sure you'll get your oil touch back as you do some more. :)

Unknown said...

thankyou fran,andrew and ankita:-)
andrew the key to good drawing is layering of the graphite,allowing more subtle variations in tone.when drawing wrinkles ,pick a few larger ones from your reference and draw those but keep loose when drawing more and dont be a slave to your photo or try to replicate everyone or it will look too contrived.

Rin [FrostyMint] said...

They both look realistic to me. I guess when you're good, you're good.

About 'don't be a slave to your photo', do you get the urge to do every line or every detail? It seems you're already doing this, being a slave to your photo. Or do you mean do every detail but not exactly like the photo?

Unknown said...

hi rin,by 'dont be a slave to your photo' i mean several things
1) know your subject,so that you know what is correct as photo's can sometimes mislead especially if your'e not knowledgable about the subject you've chosen to draw/paint
2)make the drawing/painting have the 'appearance' of detail without actually attempting to draw everything you see or know is there on a photo otherwise it gets too clinical and unnatural looking.take an overview of your subject ie: overall fur direction in that area or wrinkle direction and go with a few key elements but let the rest just flow naturally.
3)use other references other than just photos,sketchs made over the years can help you to really look at the subject and thereby get to know it well.
i like detailed paintings/drawings but that doesn't have to entail drawing all the details just hinting at them.the way an artist hints at detail is different for each and is developed by that artist as part of there own unique artistic interpretation.

Rin [FrostyMint] said...

I guess this is why I'm not good at drawing. I try to emulate every detail [exactly from the photo] and end up getting stressed out and then end up taking long breaks. And when I finally pick up my pencil again, the cycle repeat itself. For the most part [now] I just rush through it.

Thanks for the tips though!