Jaguar, Flamingo

[KarenESP]

This is the first painting I worked on after buying a how to paint wildlife ebook. Feb 2011 It's 16X20 and I realized after I had been working on it that it was too small for me to get the fur detail in like I wanted, trying to squeeze an entire animal in one painting. But I was happy that I achieved the color close to the ref. photo. The background was really cool that I first tried but it looked like a jaguar on a karaoke stage, so I just went over it, thus the lumps. I have this situation a lot, realizing something is really too large for the canvas size I picked and trying to redo something or fix something and having big lumps after the fact...

[KarenESP]

This is 18X 24 that I did last summer when I was brand new. I thought a bird might be easier after my first tiger flop. It didn't turn out so well but I had a really good time doing it and I look back fondly on it for that reason. Once again, incredible lumpiness in the background, this time due to the fact I couldn't get the strong color as in the ref. photos without fudging around with many layers... I was worried about getting something close to back feathers that looked acceptable and wound up using my fan brush which went quite well for me, I thought.

[Mz_Sketch_Pad]

i love this animals beautiful

[KarenESP]

Here's the original background that caused the lumps, that I really liked but thought too unatural, then I tried to change it to lightbeams in green, which looked unatural, in the ref. photo, the animal was spotlighted and photographed at night which was causing me trouble as to how to manage the background.... In the end I wound up with plain boring green LOL!

[KarenESP]

Ms. Sketch pad, checked your link you have WONDERFUL birds!! Really REALLY Great!!! (:

[KarenESP]

here's the ref. photo on that jaguar, that I actually paid 20 dollars for from a professional photographer... see how easy it should have been? Gave me fits and I didn't want just yet another practically plain black background...

[Karen70]

They're good, but in my opinion, more shadow is needed especially on the jag ..

[KarenESP]

Thanks for taking a look Karen (:

[Kathrin G.]

You paint wonderful eyes

[KarenESP]

Thanks Kathrin G, horse goddess (:

[Wassie]

Originally Posted by KarenESP

Here's the original background that caused the lumps, that I really liked but thought too unatural, then I tried to change it to lightbeams in green, which looked unatural, in the ref. photo, the animal was spotlighted and photographed at night which was causing me trouble as to how to manage the background.... In the end I wound up with plain boring green LOL!

I like the background in the top image.

[OkeeKat]

Fabulous both of them, I love the final background on tje Jaguar, you did great with his fur, so difficult to get the fur to look good, great job!!!
Love the bright colors of the flamingo too!!
well done!