More half finished things...

These are the things I have going at the moment, along with the Steggie painting I'm almost done with. The Reign dinos have kept me busy the last couple weeks, so I put my stuff aside while I work on them. I thought I would just post the WIPs anyway, so I don't neglect the blog for to long.

I'm almost there with the color map for the Olorotitan. Alas, I missed the Hadrosaur Gallery for Art Evolved as I got so distracted, but maybe I can still put him in it when he is done:)

So, the two new paintings I haven't decided on the creatures yet, I'm just playing with shapes. The next PT I think needs Tenontos, so maybe the forest painting will get one of those. Now it just has some random Iguanodon type thing in there to play with shape and angle of the dinosaur. The other one I just sketched in something to see what the pose would look like. It turned into something feathery. Not sure what dino it should be yet.

Anyway, that's what I've been up too;)

Nothing like Last Minute-itis...Cryolophosaurus

Alright, so I waited until the very end before deciding to paint a Cryolophosaurus. I had this sudden idea and thought...I need to paint something for PT magazine. The next dino feature is a Cryo. Let's paint it standing on a hill. Sniffing the air. In a sunset. Backlit.

OMG! This painting I was sure would fail from the start. Leave it to me to start it 3 days before the due date. Backlighting is HARD to paint! And throw in a sunset full of cloud patterns and colors. Whoa, it was a stupid idea and from the sketch I thought well...I can always just paint over it.

To my surprise it actually went relatively smoothly and I don't hate it. This is actually my first painting of a therapod. I find them difficult to get inspired by. Not sure why. Plus I'm partial to hadrosaurs, so am always looking for an excuse to paint them:-)

So, thankfully I learned that this guy was more like Dilophosaurus than the more robust Cryo's that are rendered. So I made my Cryo very gracile. To me, dinosaurs were beautiful animals and I want to try my best to portray them that way. Here, this Cryo is testing the wind, maybe has the scent of a female or prey.

I gave him a light coating of feathers on his neck and tail, mostly to break up the outline and add some interest. Backlighting is so hard to paint for me and to avoid the "halo effect" of the subject being outlined in bright light.

I had some problems coming up with a color pattern that would suit the backlight effect. I chose a piebald coloring (finally) so I could paint those gorgeous pinks, oranges and purples in the light colored areas.

So, overall I'm happy with it and happy it didn't fail!!! My first therapod, and sunset painting:-)

Not perfect at all...so I hope I improve as time goes on, but at least I don't hate it:-)

Take care!!!

Art Evolved launches...

I'm happy to be a part of a new online gallery called Art Evolved. It has officially launched today and has a great group of talented artists sharing their paleoart work with the world. The first gallery theme is the ceratopsians, those frilled and horned group of dinosaurs everyone loves.

Many thanks to all the hard work of putting this exciting blog together goes to Craig Dylke and Peter Bond who are the administrators of the site.

So, head on over, check out the art and tell the artists how much you love it! And if anyone is interested in participating, you'll find all the info you need on the site.

ART EVOVLED

Grizzlies

I'm adding more color and definition to the mother grizzly. I blocked in some of the cub on the right, but am mostly ignoring them until I get the mother figured out. Still a long ways to go, but so far I like it.

Sabertooth WIP

More work on the coat pattern as well as finishing up sculpting the other side of him.

Brown Bear Finish

I'm calling this one done or very close to it. Some, but not many problems creeped up during painting it (always a good thing!). A big, old, brown bear strolling through the woods.

Getting there...

My brown bear painting is almost done. I kept him in a forest type habitat...lots of broken color and neutral colors in the foreground left to keep focus on the bear.

Brown Bear WIP

More on the brown bear painting. I'm slowly putting in colors in the background...trying to find what looks best. Also adding and subtracting highlights in the bears coat to get him to stand out. Still a ways to go!

Brown Bear WIP

I've started a new little oil painting of a brown bear. This is how I start them, just filling in the animal with the basic "local" colors. I'll add my accent colors later, but already he isn't really brown. There are reds, greens and purples in his coat.

More later...

Forest Fox update

More work and another update. I just love putting all those bits of bright color in the fox and the habitat. To me, it is a lot more interesting and pretty than painting the fox all orange and red. It is art after all:)

Felted Wolf WIP

The wolf is about done, the photo does not show all the details. He even has little paw pads:-) I made a little dead tree branch with mushrooms to make it look like he is howling in the forest. I may do a couple more habitat items before he is ready to be placed on Etsy.

Fox on the rocks...

I am almost there with this painting. It is big, bold and colorful...just the way I love art to be! I put in all shades of beautiful color, from oranges to greens to purples and pinks. Kind of a different take on a "red" fox. I want to try and make my art stand out and express myself through use of color. Hopefully others will like what I'm trying to say with my art.

Fishing expedition

"Fishing Expedition"

Another brown bear painting. I like the idea of painting these bears in rushing water. This one has caught a sockeye salmon for dinner. It was fun to paint all the colors and since I don't paint ultra realism, I'm allowed to put bits of red, pink and purples into the bear's coat. I think it is a fun and creative way to paint.

Fox Paintings...

"Ready or Not!"

"Fall Colors"

One of my very favorite animals, these creatures are a joy to paint. Their beautiful coloring makes for an eye catching and colorful painting.

These are painted in acrylic on Gessobord. The running fox is titled "Ready or Not!" and I tried to make this fox look like he has just spotted a rabbit or something off canvas and is bounding after it.

The other painting, "Fall Colors", was fun as far as all those beautiful colors, but it really gave me some problems! I repainted the background many times, trying to find the right amount of detail to compliment the fox. The background says "forest" without explaining every pine cone or leaf.

More bears and a prehistoric beast...

Another acrylic painting of a grizzly bear, who is taking a stroll on the tundra. This is a small painting, 8"x10" on pastelbord. I found the surface easy to work with acrylics on and I'm pleased with how this little painting turned out.

I've ordered some colourfix primer to put on some gessobord so I can see how that surface is to paint on. They have some neat colors that I think would be fun to try.

The other painting is of a dinosaur, Chasmosaurus. Flowers had just started evolving during the time this guy was around, so I painted him enjoying running through a wildflower field. If you are wondering where this came from, I've had an interest in Paleontology since I can remember. Animals of unbelievable size and forms that really existed! How cool is that! Plus, I get to take the creative license pretty far in terms of color, ornamentation, behaviors, etc. The term for this kind of art is called Paleoart, or Paleo Wildlife Art. This painting will hopefully soon find it's way into Prehistoric Times magazine...a great mag that caters to all things prehistoric! I highly recommend it if you find this kind of stuff as neat as I do. Here is the link for PT magazine: http://www.prehistorictimes.com/

First post!

"Go Fish"

Hi there everyone!

Welcome to my blog where I hope to share with you my efforts at painting in acrylics and oils.

I enjoy painting wildlife, as difficult as it is to do. I favor looser treatment of the paint, as opposed to tightly detailed rendering of every hair. I've mostly painted with oil paints, but have currently been experimenting with acrylics. I'm finding that the fast drying time can actually work in my favor since I like to build up texture in my work.

This is my newest piece, titled "Go Fish". A brown bear successfully nabs a salmon. It is acrylic and is 12"x12". This painting was almost a failure, I almost dumped it. It managed to survive though and I think I'm happy with it.