At it again: What makes a big cat look like a big cat? Studies for general surface anatomy and shapes.

Just cranked this out. I went back into the archives, found this previous little thumbnail, worked it up, using my favorite prismacolor pencil: tuscan red. It has such a soft, buttery line. I was going thru some old drawings; drawings i meant to plus out but ran out of time. Compare the old cat drawings to this one. What a world of difference! It pays to practice!

I returned to an eohippus sketch (see blog archives) i did a while back and painted it for an exercise. I imagined a dark red brown creature who could easily slip into the dappled shadows in a mist filled forest. This is acrylic on canvas paper with several layers of gloss medium inbetween the paint.

Experimenting with paint: I'm at the end of a freelance deadline and for some reason, my head started hurting today. I have been on the computer a lot, inking and this has never happened before. I took a painting break and finished this one. I have been working back and forth with paint layers and gloss layers. Nothing beats the fun of pushing real tools around.

If something looks familiar, I did steal the pose of the photo of the real liger at the bottom. I tried to paint it, but the head on pose looked awful; so I repainted over the face by using my notes from my sketchbook and made it into a 3/4 head portrait.

Paintings of the past. I love painting small mini-portraits, especially people of color. Homeless is done on canvas board with acrylic, and the grouping is done with acrylic on board. It is a small piece.

Oscar Grillo, you were right. I looked up Ligers and this is what it had to say: The drive-through wildlife park, (Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia), is believed to have the country's largest concentration of ligers, housing ten of the massive cats.

Since 1999 the park has bred its male lion and female tiger many times, producing about 24 cubs.

Not all of them have been healthy, though.

"We've had 3 out of 24 that, for all practical purposes, were normal but developed as they grew older some kind of neurological disorder," Hutcherson said.

Autopsies didn't reveal what caused the cubs to develop "head shakes," so park staff "chalked it up to a genetic defect," Hutcherson said.

Pictured here is a liger, Patrick, who came from a zoo in Illinois. He is now at Shambala Preserve near Acton. Ligers were brought to the public's attention after they were mentioned in the movie, "Napoleon Dynamite."

Again, thanks for your thoughtful and humane comment, Oscar.

Some paintings done a few years ago; different styles. The monochromatic one was done when I was learning to paint; hence the stiff photographic style. The only part I really like was when I loosened up with her collar. The other is one of my very favorite paintings because of the lush colors and looseness of the brush--something that was foreign to me at the time.

wow. I finally just got blogger to work again. Back to the big cats again. I've done this one before, but i played with the brushstrokes more and "loosened" up. I like this one much better. Very limited palette; burnt umber, naples yellow, burnt sienna (for the redder tones), titanium white and raw umber in everything. A limited palette will help me establish values.

Some old paintings I did in the past. Alanis was actually painted in my sketchbook.

Found these on the internet. These are
"ligers" a mix between a male lion and female tiger and claims to be the largest cat in the world, up to 800 pounds. I just could not get over the size of these animals. And to think La Brea boasted of having even larger big cats in the pits, and Asia and Europe, some of the largest in the world. These photos give me a feeling of the size, power, awe of the big cats of the past. To think they came even larger than this...!

Found this page in an old sketchbook. This was done about a year ago at a friend's house. Horses were the first thing I learned how to draw when I could hold a pencil.

Some roughs I sent to MGA. Apparently they now want an inteview. Since I have a very active 5 year old daughter and sketch her a lot, these drawings came out naturally. I have several fun sketches of Sienna and her friends that I have done over the last couple of years. My sketch books are chock full off'm.

A quick drawing for a company who asked me to do some designs for solarized lawn ornaments. I just did it tonight.

These will be the covers of the pamphlets that will be put in with the religious dolls. They were built in Illustrator. There are more, but not worth showing. Greg helped me with these, as we fumbled around in Illustrator, screaming at the monitor. Yet we learned a lot. That is the important thing.

Here are some illustrations I did for a toy company. This represents hundreds of drawings submitted since Sept. I also did toys, turnarounds, etc for each character. I am almost ashamed of this work because it is hack work at best. Bad anatomy choices, bad use of perspective, tangents galore, etc. The top of each illustration is left open for type and I was asked to tone down and simplify values. These are tiny illustrations for packaging and will be pitched towards children 4 years and younger. I did not chose the color schemes for the characters. I felt like a ferrari stuck in first gear!

For vince and serge...it has been awhile. Been juggling two big freelance jobs; one which just ended. i have been celebrating by...sleeping. Also been jumping into the difficult and frustrating Illustrator. Here is a Bratz test i am submitting to MGA today.

"One in a million bones become fossilized," I was told at La Brea, "none of the animal species represented here are from one animal. The bones are found in the tar, organized by animal species, then the bones of several animals are pieced together to make one animal. When you see a body, it is made up of about 20 animals put together. It is extremely rare that you will ever find a body completely intact." Sabor tooth cats were about 450 pounds; about the size of the African lion. They were a very stocky cat; pouncers more than chasers and the last of these cats died out 10,000 years ago.

Back to La Brea for a two hour sketch exercise. Was given some names of renown researchers and will contact them in the future. The next steps will be to do some anatomical sculpts, but have large overlappping freelance right now. Will try to post new art when I can. thanks for checking in!

Going from horses to the big Cats. Fun excercises I did in the Bay Area. I decided that I needed to start practising painting big cats for LeoPardine. Small brushworks. These are not finished yet and will probably go to the gallery.

This is a quick fun little acrylic sketch I did while in the Bay Area. Colors: black, white, burnt umber, naples yellow with cerealun blue in the background. tiny, maybe 2x2.

This is a sculpture of a sabortooth cat battling with a snake in Golden Gate Park. It has always been a favorite of mine, as I used to visit there a lot when I was a kid. I wonder if the same sculptor did the sabortooth cats in La Brea..

I walked around the sculpture which is in a dried out fountain between the new De Young Museum and the Steinhart Aquarium (which is empty because of remodeling). I drew different views of it because from almost every angle it is a beautiful and dynamic composition. Evenutally it got so cold, my hands started to ache, but it deserves another visit to do some acrylic studies. I tried acrylic, but it was so cold, it would not dry! And thus came out like mud!

Some more hasty dragon drawings. I am leaving town soon so I am trying to post new art before leaving...The character is Gromlet, a character I actually daydreamed up in an English class way back in highschool.

A quick sketch of a Dragon. Well sort of. This needs to be painted for the gallery...

The model is Nils Vidstand, one of my favorite models of all time. He was one of the first models who invited me to come up and check out his weapons and props, to feel an old gun that he made and explained to me the history of cowboys; why they wore what they did, how they lived. He could act as well as pose and had great presence in his modeling. He looked like he had just walked right out of the Old West and into the studio.

These were done before I left Disney in Bob Kato's class during lunch hour. I need to redraw the left model; I love her Art Deco pose.

The right one is after I gave birth to my daughter and was so out of it; (it would take three years before I got my drawing sensibility back; I think it was the unbalanced hormones and total lack of sleep). It literally felt like I had never held a pencil in my life and when I sat down and observed the model was afraid to make the first stroke. But oddly enough, I nailed it. Even tho, I was not lucid or "myself" I still had the ability to draw just out of the practice of drawing for so many years. Because this drawing re-affirmed that I still "had it" it remains one of my favorite drawings.

Little Brushworks
Greg framed the Lepardine miniature and another small foal painting. The Lepardine painting was not a great work of art, but it sure looked smart after Greg put it in a black frame. They all go to New Mexico in a few days for the x-mas rush.

I am crushed with freelance right now, but will try to post new stuff...

Constructions lines for a new painting. These are small; 4"x4". I may leave the top painting of LeoPardine almost as is since I like the brush strokes. She may have the look of native american.

15 minutes later...it is too bad you cannot see all the fun little nuances of the flesh tones. Again, this is the same pallette I used for the yellow horse!

A small work in progress: While I had laid out this nice pallette of browns, I quickly sketched this one out in minutes.

A close up to see the brush strokes. I love the way the strokes came out on the left eye. This painting is the same size as the red brown horse; 7"x 5".

colors were: raw umber, some burnt umber, sienna, red oxide, a touch of cadmium orange medium, a touch of black, titanium white, naples yellow and chromium oxide green. I threw in variations of green on the left side of the face, but the base brown was raw umber, a yellow brown.

Fini

Working simulatenously on both paintings...It is too bad the subtle colors do not show up in the photo. This one I will probably keep. LeoPardine will be painted in this style, "pushing the paint" around. By practicing with the horses, I am flexing my painting skills for the figure.

I am using real cheap bristle brushes which give me little or no control on cold press board. The paint slides around on this substrate--you will either love it or hate it's unpredictability and randomness. It is like painting with watercolors that way, but it can give you a clarity with the paints that canvas cannot seem to deliver. You just have to let the paint do what it wants to do and take advantage of it.

An hour later...Even tho the green background looks better in the photo, the sand background gave the painting fresher surface look. Paint has a "buttery" look that i love. This painting is by no means done; i just need to adjust a few things. When it is done, I will throw 2 coats of a gloss or matte medium on it to seal the paint for all prosperity and viewers will swear it is oil.

Little Brushworks
The first horse is for a friend; it is a red brown horse with black accents. It is a "showy" painting because i had the opportunity to give it vertical strokes. I pushed the paint around--much like Dean Cornwell did with oils. Even tho the first one photographs better, has better "sculpting" and is more faceted, I actually like the second one better, which is based with umber colors--yellow browns, not reds. I never use yellow browns, but have come up with wonderful values and shades of yellow browns. This painting has less opportunity for long brushstrokes, but i love the color.