Baby Elephants

6x12 watercolor and India ink on Strathmore 140 lb cold press paper done this afternoon.  Using only mixed leftover palette paint to make a grey or neutral, I first put in an underpainting over the pencil drawing (same baby ellie repeated 3 times).  Next I did a bit of modeling of values using other mixes such as quinacridone violet and green gold with UB.  I rewet their backs then drew black ink across to resemble their baby hair.  Lastly, when dry, splattering with a brush loaded with quin gold and quin burnt orange finished them.  Image courtesy Lin/WetCanvas for August Animal & Wildlife forum challenge.
Image is COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2014.

Trunk Show (elephants) WIP

 Here is the FINISHED work in progress, 15x22 India ink and watercolor on Italia 140 lb cold press paper done today.  Colors used:
raw umber violet, raw sienna, sepia, and cobalt teal blue.

 

This view is the first one where I drew in the larger bull elephant using ink dropper.  I had spritzed my paper with water sprayer at random, then sporadically misted it over wet ink spots.  Once the ink is dry it is permanent.

I felt the composition needed one more guy to round out the trunk show, similar to show and tell only these beasts are comparing trunks at the local savannah club.  Actually the work could stand on its own either with or without the third fellow who appears to be laughing.

Elephants - a watercolor collage

7.5 x 5.5 watercolor with hand colored rice paper collage on Italia 140 lb cold press paper; American Journey paints.  I really wanted to show the texture of the ellies rough hide.  Photo ref Wet Canvas reference image library.

Ellies

14.5 x 10.75 watercolor, acrylic over old collage on gel coated matboard done yesterday. Elephants are outlined in black Sharpie pen. A few touches of colored pencil and Caran D'Ache crayon were added. The abstracted areas in background and foreground are where the gel medium did not cover completely which was my intent. The old collage was a man holding a fishing pole bent over; you can see his plaid shirt. These pieces were cut from another old watercolor. My motto: Never throw away your paintings you dislike. Yesterday's dog is tomorrow's collage!