Wednesday 2 March 2016

Mystery Animal

This was the latest subject at my art group. We were given the same  photograph on arriving at the hall where we paint. This turned out to be a polar bear with two cubs. 


Photo on the left. I'm afraid the drawing looks faint on here.


I made a pencil drawing, as accurate as I'm capable of with not too much detail, basically just outlines.


Initial colours. Very difficult this as the colours of the animals are various shades of (dirty) white with hints of blue and violet in the background. There are also suggestions of yellow in places on the fur.


 16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb (300gsm) not.

I think I got the basic outlines fairly correct and overpainted with the same colours, when the original washes were dry, a series of blue or yellow greys, mixed from Ultramarine and Transparent Brown (Schminke) heavily diluted then added some yellow to give a yellowish tinge in places. The background was again heavily diluted and comprised Cerulean and Violet/Mauve. I actually used some pan paints for this - Schminke I think.




The above are the work of my fellow artists. I just wonder how Gerard Hendriks or Charles Reid would tackle this in terms of colour? 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

A really good rendition Peter.

Peter Ward said...

Thanks jan.

Unknown said...

wow! ur not kidding re: all of those varying shades of dirty white prominent in the original pic!! a daunting task, no question, resulting in a truly excellent rendition, peter!
i envy ur skill at detailing the focus of pic and simplifying the background noise via an abstract wash-like technique with just a hint of color taken from the deepest shadows... hats off. all too often i find myself stressing over the smallest non-detail ( in the BACKground, no less!!) that its an absolute miracle i ever manage to complete anything! smh.
any suggestions/advice for the agonizingly detailed perfectionist within?? (...if only i could channel some of that ocd mantra into my everyday activities- laundry, dishes, er, pretty much all housekeeping related activities, oranization, etc...! i can only imagine the possibilities...); instead, my art is the sole beneficiary of my otherwise dormant obsessive tendencies and perfectionistic mentality. UGH.