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Last week, I was all about the Round tailed Ground Squirrel, and as seen on instagram, this week, I've discovered the Harris Antelope Squirrel That doesn't really show it's cuteness...  Or how about... The Harris Antelope Squirrel is native to Arizona, New Mexico and some parts of northern Mexico. It looks very similar to a chipmunk, but is in fact a squirrel. They can be found in rocky desert areas and around cacti. They are always dashing around and looking adorable. But, when they get hot, they will find a cool shady area, and spread their legs out so their belly will touch the cool ground. This helps release the heat from their body, and explains their odd behavior. Well some of it...  So to celebrate my new favorite subject, I decided to take three different materials and explore how I want to share my love for it. The first material I used to convey the subject was charcoal:  Harris Antelope Squirrel in Charcoal See details Charcoal is a wonderful material to really grab the form, and showcase the values in the composition - but wasn't quite what I was looking for... Next, I tried some graphite and added a little wash to it...  Harris Antelope Squirrel with watercolor wash See details Then to really capture the personality of the Harris Antelope Squirrel, I decided to draw a more quirky pose, in just the simplicity of graphite:  Harris Antelope Squirrel in Graphite Graphite is one of my favorite mediums to render a subject in, the precision and value helps bring the creature to life.
A good wildlife drawing or painting is usually rendered quite well - but a great or even exceptional wildlife painting, I believe, captures the soul - the personality - the life of the subject. By doing the Harris Antelope Squirrel in three different mediums, I am able to explore different styles, textures, etc. that will help me find my way to share the soul, the personality, and the life of the subject - at least, how I see it or experience it. Most likely, these studies will lead to a larger pastel drawing or even a painting. I know for sure though, this little squirrel gives so much inspiration in it's tiny package, that I'll never stop wanting to draw or paint it!
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At my new studio, located at the Manheim Gallery in Cottonwood, I'm working on a new abstract -- but not really that abstract -- painting --- but its more of a mixed media painting with charcoal --work of art. Right now, it is very much in the work in progress stage, but here is the progress so far... Stage one -- Find inspiration..A few weeks ago, I visited the area around Sunset Crater (near Flagstaff) in hopes to do a little plein air painting of the lava rocks. Because I defiantly ignored the weather warnings of 20% rain -- it down poured... soaking any possibility to paint. However, the stormy afternoon opened up into a beautiful stormy sky to photograph. So we sat in the car, keeping dry and eating our snacks, and every so often snapping a few incredible moments of double rainbows....  Smoky stormy clouds... and Ravens flying through... Stage two -- start paintingSo this past week or so, I couldn't get the image of the raven flying out of my head. Or the colors of that day. So I had an idea, I would paint the landscape from memory. First I would try to remember three colors that stuck out to me.. the grayish blueish sky, the sage green, and the yellow ochre -- then go all Mark Rothko, and plot in the landscape with the three colors...  Stage three - add some charcoal... who doesn't love charcoal and getting messy? Then, after the background was plotted in, I decided I would draw the raven large in the foreground, using charcoal.. I chose to add a raven flying left to right, similar to a flying raven I took a picture of last summer in my backyard as it was creating a nest.  Stage four -- add color, texture, some more paint, more charcoal... |
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January 2023
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