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My painting styles closely follow my drafting
styles, drawing on my sketches and elaborating on them using
layers of paint to describe shadows and color. With my watercolors,
I start out with a pencil sketch on a separate piece of paper
to get my composition finished. Then, I transfer the sketch
to watercolor board or canvas and start applying washes of
watercolor or layers of oil paint. Sometimes I will even combine
watercolors and oils, starting with a monochrome watercolor
wash painting to get the shadows set in the piece, seal the
wash using a plastic polymer sealant, and then apply layers
of oil paint over the top to get the colors and details completed.
Polar bears, 18 x 24",
watercolors and colored pencil on paper, 1995 |
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Red Squirrel, 18 x 24",
watercolors and colored pencil on paper, 1995 |
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The painting above is of two polar bears
in the Baltimore Zoo in Maryland. This piece was done half
on site in a drawing stage, then brought back to my studio
and finished using more color and then colored pencils for
details in the bears' fur once it was dried.
The painting to the right is from a photograph
taken in the North Carolina mountains following a snowstorm.
It was created in the same manner as the polar bear painting
above, using layers of watercolors for shadows and color cast,
and then finished with colored pencils for the details in
the squirrel's fur and the tree root that it is standing on.
This
time I chose to use white colored pencils to add in highlights
where I felt they were needed on the squirrel's fur.
The elephant below was also drawn on-site as the polar bears were, but I also finished the painting at the zoo, since I caught the handlers feeding the elephants over a period of an hour, and they mostly stayed in the same position while grabbing branches with their trunks. I created this painting only in watercolors, without pencil details.
African
Elephant, 18 x 24", watercolors on paper,
1995 |
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African Zebras, 18 x 24",
watercolors on paper, 1995 |
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I created this painting of zebras to the left as a study.
I drew the animals in as many poses as I could on a separate
sketch pad, taking careful notes of how the stripes travelled
across their fur, and detailed sketches of their heads so
that they did not look like horses (they're more closely related
to donkeys). Like the elephant painting,
I created this entirely in watercolor paint without any pencil
detailing.
This study of a Mexican
field mouse below was created both from sketches and photographs.
I sketched as much as I could of the mouse while it was still,
and then photographed it so that I could add details of its
form and color later when I got back to my studio. I added
pencil details in later, in white pencil for the highlights,
and medium & dark brown for the mid-tone and shadow details,
once the piece was dry.
Mexican Field Mouse, 20 x 28",
watercolors and colored pencil on paper, 1995
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