Finding a Bear While Finding My Way

Here’s a new painting I didn’t expect.

I keep a wide selection of seemingly random photos in a file in Dropbox that I can grab wherever I am and sketch from. Many are photos I think will be good for sketch reference, but probably not for finished pieces.

I started this one of Gruff from Discovery Wildlife Park a while ago on the Wacom MovinkPad 11, my portable digital display that I’ve been using a lot over the last year. My intention was to get it to the point where I could add it as an accent sketch in the Bear book, something to accompany a block of text, perhaps. It’s the kind of thing I like to see when I read art books, and I’ve included several in my own.

But as is often the case, I didn’t know when to call it done. Before I knew it, I had turned it into a finished piece I’m calling “Who, Me?”

I think this one earns its own full page. I’m pleased with how it turned out. Funny enough, I still have one more painting to finish for the book. But it’s well underway and I’ll share it soon enough.

Because the app I use on the portable display records the brush strokes as I work, I decided to continue recording more of the process as I finished this one.

That turned into a short video about the painting, but also about trying to figure out how I want to make these videos without letting the recording get in the way of the work.

Cheers,
Patrick