In the Studio

I’m a little behind in posting here, but it’s been a horribly rough week and a half or so. My horse pulled up wounded in some form, had to get the vet out and he went over him from stem to stern. Best we can figure is he strained a muscle or pinched a nerve, likely from slipping on some ice as it’s that time of year with the big spring melt on and lots of freezing/thawing all around. We’ve got him on Bute for a week and so far it seems to be helping in a big way. He would barely walk before, the pain seemed to be too great, and now at least he’s moving around fairly freely and getting to the hay and water no problem.

Anyhoo! With all this going on, I’ve been making frequent trips out to the farm to check on him and we’re actually enjoying a special bonding time throughout all this. Today was one such day, and after feeding him his medicine, and grooming him and just being generally cuddly….I went and grabbed my new pastel pochade box, plunked myself down on a stool in the straw of the cow shelter we have him holed up on for resting. I began sketching out the scene in front of me, where he was dozing and I could see him through the fence rails. But wouldn’t ya know it, by the time I got the boards and sky blocked in, he moved! Soooooo I ended up finishing it without him in it. I’m calling this one “Donkey’s Point of View”, as they do have a little miniature donkey out there at the farm, and I was sitting at about her eye level.

Donkey’s Point of View 8″ x 8 1/2″ pastel

Afterwards, the sun was still shining bright - gotta get used to these longer days now that spring is finally here, yeah!! So I went out for a hike in the woods and plunked myself down in the melting snow right about here, and while my husky and the farm dog were busy out carousing around not far from me, I was busily sketching away. Here is the result of about an hour’s time sitting in the warm sunlight…didn’t even need a jacket today!

Spring Thaw 10″ x 12 1/2″ pastel

Last night I worked on the wolf some, after “killing” the background a bit by blurring it out to push it further away from the viewer. Because to give a sense of distance, and the focal point being the wolf, too much detail in the far background makes it seem like it’s right there at the same level with the wolf, when in fact we know it’s not. So, I blurred out the tree line with a dry brush, rubbing the pastels to soften the lines thus blurring it out.

The wolf himself, his head needed to be “poofier” and his muzzle smaller. After compare measuring some of his dimensions - done by using my thumb and index finger to get a rough idea how long something is, not using a ruler - I compared the distance from the top of his head by his left ear, down to where his muzzle jutted out, and found that the distance (in the reference photo) was fairly close to the length of the foreleg’s bottom side. So I had that part correct. But the muzzle still seemed too large. So I compared the same length of his forehead to where it comes down from the top of his muzzle down his neck. In the photo, the length is a few clumps of hair down his neckline under his chin, yet, in my piece, the distance was the same size as from the top of his muzzle to his chin line. So definitely way too thick in there. So I re-drew his entire snout. Gotta love pastels!!! All these past months I’ve had it drilled into my head that nothing can beat oils as far as a fine art medium. Well, by golly, I can do anything oils can do with these pastels, so they are definitely MY medium!

Soooo here is the progress photo where you can see the changes. At first glance you may not notice the difference, but compare it to the photo underneath it which was the previous stage and you will see a big change in the wolf.

And the prior version for quick comparison:

Allrighty, here is today’s stage. I digitally worked up the upper background to see what I’d like to so, and then I made it so in the pastels. Gotta love modern technology!

Sorry I missed yesterday…just didn’t get any time at the easel. Computer, the slave driver that it is, wouldn’t let me escape it. Noooooooooo

Anyhoo, here is today’s installment so far. I say so far because I’m likely to do more work on it yet today IF the computer doesn’t keep me here.

Today I started detailing the background from the top down. I’m working out what will be where and how detailed it will be. I’ll likely “kill” some of the details I’m creating to push it further into the background, but it will depend on how detailed and sharp the foreground is. So far to kill it all I’ve had to do is rub it lightly with a kleenex tissue. Blurs out the edges of the marks enough to give them that out of focus distant feel. I’m kinda winging the background as I go along, deciding where to put a twig or a branch or a rock, or some other miscellaneous natural debris that is common in the grassy woodland that this wolf calls home. I haven’t done anything new yet on the bottom half of the picture, that will come later.

Not a whole lot to report today, although it looks like more than it is. Still fleshing out the background, with a little touches on the wolf but not many yet. Carrying it a bit higher up the board so looks like the crop will be more vertical than originally thought out. Which is okay. The more I’ve worked it up, the more I decided there needed to be more distance in the background above the wolf. Guess I should’ve measured it earlier though….the current format is 16″ x 26″. I could take it all the way to the top and make it 16″ x 28″. Not sure if it’ll end up there yet or not. We’ll see eventually!

Well, today was a productive day! Here’s the second installment on this piece. Still don’t have a title set for it, but I do have a few ideas bouncing around in my head. One was a good one, but dangit, I didn’t write it down while it was there and now it flew away. Hopefully it flies back sometime…it was a good title!

At this point just “fleshing out” the background, laying in some colors so I have some pigment to build subsequent layers on top of. About the only thing for certain so far is the color palette. The positioning of things in the far background will be adjusted as I see fit. The foreground will have lots of tall yellow tufted grasses, once I have enough color built up for the background to show through between the blades.

Since my hectic schedule just doesn’t seem to allow much time for daily WHOLE paintings, perhaps I can appease you all by posting what painting I did get to do that day.

Today is a WIP of a new piece I started the other night….yeah, I know, another new piece, when I have other pieces to finish yet, but hey, it’s been a rough week for me - the winter blues have really taken a big bite out of me so I have to fight back with something new and exciting so that I can get myself back on that art horse, as it were.

This one measures about 16″ x 28″, give or take…I haven’t decided how much I’ll crop it down to yet, we’ll see what I decide as I get closer to finishing it. It’s pastels on suede, of course, my favorite medium to work in and after spending some frustrating time working on my large acrylic painting, which is viewable on my other blog - Phases of My Mood - which is quite obviously not my best medium yet, but I will conquer and master it. It does lend itself a lot better to working large - very large - compared to pastels which would be cumbersome to frame and ship at such large dimensions. So, if I’m to continue offering large works of art for you, I will have to keep at those acrylics until I’ve become as comfy with them as I am with pastels.

But, back to the piece at hand.

This piece is being worked out of one of my many photos taken during my trip to Yellowstone back in October for the Robert Bateman seminar. On the way home we stopped in at a wolf/bear park in West Yellowstone and you just know I spent darned near the entire time captivated by the wolves. This fellow (I think it’s a fellow, can’t see his/her back half in the photo and the whole pack is fairly similarly colored) was trotting by my camera and I chose this particular photo because of the colorful scenery behind him. Yes, me, liking SCENERY! Imagine that! With all the plein air pieces I’ve been doing this past year, it’s a natural transition for me to start thinking more of the background that I place my subjects in rather than just being a painting of JUST the animal.

Here is the painting in progress thus far:

Now, you may wonder, why is she painting a picture of a wolf who’s facing away from you? At first I thought, yeah, I know, I should turn his head this way. But then it would just be another one of thousands of “been there, already done that” portrait poses of a wolf. So, I decided, dang it, I’m the artist, I can do whatever I darn well please, and I love the colors in this wolf’s neck, so I’m leaving him facing the other way on purpose. What’s he looking at? Or is he just oblivious to your presence? Or are you oblivious to his? Wolves in the wild are oft romanticized by those who revere them and ostracized by those who don’t. Yet the wolf is an important part of the “circle of life”, keeping the populations in balance with each other. Remove the predator and now we’re overrun with prey animals. I’m fortunate in that there are still a few wild wolves left not far from where I live, and having gotten to know wolves quite well in the past year during my studies, I must say that I side with the wolf. A few small losses in livestock is a small price to pay in order to keep nature in balance. Without nature, nothing lives in the long run. We need our environment to stay intact the way it was meant to function. I’d rather be short a few head of cattle in the relative short term than have them vanish altogether in the long term. (I could go on and on into a rant about this, but I won’t. Suffice to say, all businesses have losses for various reasons - the weather, the economy, damaged goods, whatever….ranching has it’s losses too and as long as it can be a tax write-off, why is everybody whining???)

Anyhoo!

I haven’t settled on a title yet for this piece. We’ll see how he evolves as I progress on it.