Recently I have become very interested, and impressed, with the animal and bird drawings of a a number of artists who paint their subjects in a loose and colourful manner. Some seem to me to fall into the concept of realistic abstracts, while others are more realistic but use colour in a very imaginative way. Jean Haines www.jeanhaines.com/ , Gerard Hendriks www.gerardhendriks.net/ , Esther Hefferman, Bev Jozwiak www.bevjozwiak.com/ and Lian Quan Zhen www.lianspainting.com/ are among those that have made an impression on me. Terrific artists one and all, although different from each other in various ways and they paint a variety of subjects not just wildlife.
Snow Leopard
It may be that this photograph is subject to copyright and if I am so informed I'll delete it, but hopefully since this blog has no commercial aspirations this won't happen. This is the photograph I based the painting on.
Snow Leopard- Fontenay 16" x 12" 140lb (300gm) Not
I concentrated on the features and blurred the outer parts to partly blend with the background. Colours used were diluted Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Cerulean Blue and very diluted Quinacridone Rose (Graham) mixed with Raw Umber or Raw Sienna. Indigo also featured quite a lot in various dilutions with some Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber. The background is mainly Cerulean Blue, possibly a little Cobalt Blue in places. For the black marks on the face and just above I used Daler Rowney FW Black acrylic ink. The red of the mouth is a mixture of Cadmium Red and Quinadicrone Rose with some added Burnt Umber. I used masking fluid put on with a ruling pen for the whiskers, and added white for the teeth.
The only brushes used were the two Isabey 6201 retractables, the 4 and the 6. I recently added the 4 to my armoury. Both brushes are very small compared to normal 4's and 6's but are very slim and have excellent points. For the larger areas the Isabey 6228 Kolinsky Size 8. All were purchased from Jacksons www.jacksonsart.co.uk. Am I pleased with this one? Yes.
