This ‘Long Neck Buds’ piece has been a lot of fun so far. With the left (and final) giraffe finished, I’d love to print this image right now as a double-width layout on metal, maybe 20”x40” or even 30”x60” and hang it in my office. It’s refreshing to do something different, especially with so many available options from this painting.
While I can print anything for a custom order, I wouldn’t stock the above painting layout as a poster print. The wider format makes for a larger framing investment for my customers, and keeping unique dimension prints in inventory would be difficult.
With the characters done, I still have several hours of work to build the trees and sky for the rest of the scene.
The leaves will be a challenge because acacia trees are their preferred food, and those have a specific look to them with long thorns among the leaves.
I have a few ideas on how best to do it, including creating a new brush for the task, but with no deadline, I have time to experiment.
No, this is not déjà giraffe, but another addition to the ‘Long Neck Buds’ work in progress. From the original mock-up sketch, the first one I painted was the middle giraffe. This is the one on the right of the image.The challenge with this piece is to make each character different from the others but with the same level of detail and colour palette.
Each giraffe is an individual painting, and both are pretty much finished pieces. I could print them individually as they are. But I also know that once they’re placed in the scene, after painting the sky, clouds and treetops, I will add more on each giraffe to make them blend into the environment.
So, after the whole painted scene is finished, each giraffe will look a little different than their individual paintings.
I’m enjoying this piece because each stage of the painting brings a new challenge, and I’m in no rush.
Whenever there was a turning point in an 80s movie, you could expect a music montage. Whether it was rebuilding a classic car, a group of rebellious teens learning to dance, or the karate tournament advancing to the final match, an upbeat song helped the story jump through time without making the viewer watch all the actual hard work.
Did you really want to see the protagonist standing in line at the auto parts store to get an air filter for the ’67 Camaro he’s restoring?
It often takes many days or weeks to complete one of my whimsical wildlife pieces, and I enjoy most of it. Drinking hot black coffee, tunes in my earbuds, I’m quite content to spend hours at a time painting tiny little hairs on a wolf’s muzzle or adding texture detail so the sea turtle’s skin looks real.
But if you were watching this work over my shoulder, I guarantee you would be bored out of your mind.
My buddy Derek is one of the most incredible tattoo artists you’ll ever see. When I hang out at the shop, I’ll often lean over his shoulder to watch. His linework is ridiculously precise, and I’m fascinated at the silky-smooth colour gradients he achieves with a tattoo machine. But eventually, it gets boring. He’ll often have clients that sit for hours all day for three days straight.
I just want to see some of the work in progress and the finished piece.
I’ve been creating time-lapse videos off and on for many years, and even though they can add hours of extra work to a painting, they’re fun to put together.
Sometimes I’ll record a voiceover, something inspirational for other artists, or relevant thoughts on the piece. Over the years, I’ve done a few of those for Wacom, the company that makes the tablets and displays I’ve been using since the late 90s. While I still love their products and will continue to recommend them, the best days of that working relationship are likely behind me now.
Most corporations are still chasing the likes and shares on social media, whereas I am not. I have no designs on becoming an Instagram influencer. I’d rather spend that time creating more art.
The time-lapse videos I enjoy most are the short ones with a musical accompaniment. These days I have a monthly subscription to Epidemic Sound, and it allows me to find the right track to go with a painting, regardless of the mood I’m trying to set.
I record the first part of the video over my left shoulder with my DSLR camera. I must keep in mind that the camera is beside me on the tripod, careful not to bump it. Because I’m recording a digital screen with a digital capture device, it also creates lighting problems.
Movies and TV shows will often add device and monitor screens after the fact in editing because it’s so difficult and time-consuming to record them with a camera.
But people like to see my hand holding the stylus, moving around the display.
For the rest of the video, I use Camtasia‘s screen capture software. I’ve been using it to record and edit since I created my DVDs ten years ago, and it works well.
But when I get down to the smallest of hairs in the painting, making subtle shading changes, and applying catchlights to the wet skin of the nose or around the eyes, it eventually becomes difficult for the viewer to follow the cursor.
And finally, our attention spans keep getting shorter. With slot machine scrolling on our phones, multiple tabs open on our desktops and pinging alerts going off all around us, holding somebody’s interest is a challenge.
I used to record four- or five-minute time-lapse videos, but most people won’t sit through those anymore, so I try to keep them under two minutes. Of course, it means there are significant jumps in the painting’s progress and detail, but it works.
People just want to see some of the work in progress and the finished piece.
Cheers,
Patrick
P.S. As always, feel free to share the video, with my thanks. That goes for anything else I post on this site as well.
Here’s a sneak peek at a new painting of Berkley that I started this morning. I took the reference for this one in September 2019 at Discovery Wildlife Park but didn’t see the potential in it until just recently.
She was lying in the grass, looking right at me, so it’s actually a horizontal image, but I’m painting it vertically so that I can get the expression right. When it’s finished, people can hang the print whichever way they want, so that’s a fun little twist.
As the painting develops, I’ll paint in blades of grass in the foreground on the right side. It will partially obscure that side of her face but give the whole image a sense of place.
Yesterday, my friend and head keeper Serena sent me a personal video and a couple of photos to let me know that Berkley has woken up from hibernation. While it’s already warming up around here, seeing that sleepy 4-year-old brown bear’s face certainly makes it feel like spring might finally be around the corner.
Having raised her from a weeks-old cub, Serena and Berkley have a special bond, and I don’t know who was happier to see the other.
I’ll share more work-in-progress shots with my newsletter followers as this painting progresses, but I don’t think this one will take long. There’s no other face I like painting more than Berkley’s.
Almost all of the animals at Discovery Wildlife Park are orphans and rescues; many are brought to them from Alberta Fish and Wildlife. These are animals they can’t release back into the wild and would otherwise have to destroy.
While animals in captivity are never ideal, people have made many bad choices, and there are very few places in the world where animals are truly wild outside of protected regions.
I live in an area where trains, highways and tourists are the biggest threat to bears, wolves and other wildlife. By leaving food in easy reach, approaching wildlife, and even deliberately feeding them, we teach them to associate people with a free meal. When they eventually become too comfortable or even aggressive, they often must be euthanized.
Hazing and relocation to other areas will occasionally work, but most often, the damage has already been done and is irreversible.
Discovery Wildlife Park works to educate guests and visitors about coexistence and conservation, which is why I support their efforts.
But without financial support, they wouldn’t be able to do the work they do.
Discovery Wildlife Park is closed for the season right now, but they’ll be open May 1st. With 90 acres of space in which to move around, it’s a great place to get outside and spend time with the animals while still being able to social distance. While you’re there, make time for their daily scheduled presentations to learn how you can help keep wildlife wild.
I have a few ideas on how best to do it, including creating a new brush for the task, but with no deadline, I have time to experiment.
The challenge with this piece is to make each character different from the others but with the same level of detail and colour palette.
