Caracal 17" x 11" oil on board

Caracal has reached the point where i'm happy to call it finished all bar a little tinkering once dry.This one has proved to be interesting for me in practising my fur depiction techniques and i feel that ive learned a little more about how to portray fur a bit more realistically.Hope you all like the results.

Caracal oil painting progress

Had a great day in the studio yesterday with very few interruptions which is very rare these days.Ive been working up the fur details on the cats head and at one point thought to myself that this was a fairly slow and tedious process and then i remembered and was grateful that this piece is not being rendered in graphite!.

Back to oils(for now)

after my recent excursion back to graphite ive dusted off an old oil painting that was frustrating me so much that i abandoned it for a while.As an oil painting 'newbie' i sometimes find myself resorting to just daubing colours onto the board with a larger brush in an effort to try and find the colour i want and get the creative juices flowing.This is the second 'underpainting' of this little image and i'm now happier with the colours i'm using and hopefully over the next few days will be able to add detail.In all honesty i havn't a clue whether this will work or not and find myself spending far too long scratching my head with oils to be able to produce many paintings as yet,but i think its important to show my possible failures as well as the successes.

Elephant drawing completed 17.5" x 12"

Ok,so here it is,the as yet untitled Elephant drawing as it stands right now on my drawing board.I feel as though ive been looking at this image for an age now and i'll have to leave it on the board for a couple of days and look at it afresh later as well as hopefully come up with a decent title for it.Hope you like it,i'm off for a little lie down!

Elephant complete

The elephant is at last completed.i've been away from graphite for a while before taking on this image and so had forgotten just how long it takes to get all those details in.Next on the agenda is to make some sense of the foreground grasses,no easy task,which i think is going to take an age as well and then finally the icing on the cake in the shape of the little cattle egret in the immediate foreground.i have an upcoming graphite workshop to prepare for over the next couple of weeks and so progress may be a little patchy with this image,however if i can get it right it is likely to make it into print as my publisher's are keen to have a new elephant image from me.If anyone would be interested in recieving details of the print,do email me your contact details and i'll forward information once it's all finalised.

Elephant drawing progression

The elephant is almost complete now,the trunk and tusks will add the final dimension to the piece and show the lovely light catching the folds and wrinkles in the elephants trunk.Very soon i'm going to have to tackle the foreground grasses and these are likely to take some time for me to complete as its my least favourite subject to draw and one that i'm seldom happy with the outcome of.

Elephant drawing update

Had several days off this week and so progress on the elephant drawing has been a little slow.Ive left the trunk and tusks until nearer the end of the image to complete as the front legs will be quite dark with the trunk and tusks catching the sun making for quite an interesting contrast and its easier to set the dark tones first.