I took this photo of a black rhino while on safari at the Sweetwaters tent camp, run by the Ol Pejeta conservancy. Black rhinos have norrow, peaked lips and forage from shrubs and bushes as much as they graze. The white rhinos, for which Ol Pejeta leads the world in conservacny efforts, by contrast have blunt, flat lips and are exclusively grazers.
The image did not need any photo compositing, so I cleared the background, laid in a panel area and traced the outlines I needed, then printed them out and taped them to my home-made 3ft x 2ft lightbox.
Using a lightbox leaves the watercolor paper pristine and unmarked by messy pencil sketch outlines or near indelible graphite transfer paper lines.
After blocking in the head area, wet-on-wet, for the most part, and very quickly, I then scatter large sea salt crystals in select areas.
The sea salt creates excquisite natural mini-blooms and pigment concentrations in a pattern reminiscent of the rhino's pebbled skin.
Here I have glazed over the head, adding some wrinkle details and deepening the tone. While this paint is still very wet, I re-apply sea salt to add another layer of texture.
I lay in broad, loose wet-on-wet and dry brush color for the body base layer, then sprinkle sea salt liberally over the area for texture.
Here you can see the beautiful, random pebbling patterns created by the sea salt.
I continue glazing to build up shadows and contrast in body area, adding more sea salt occasionally for texture.
Here I begin to create the characterful wrinkles that are unique to each rhino.
I finalize most of the details on the head and neck areas, deepening shadows on wrinkles to add dimension and capture directional sunlight.
I lay in more wet, darker shadow glazing, then add more sea salt to build on textures.
I over-paint the background panel in acrylics, blending from alazarin crimson, darkened with a touch of prussian blue and burnt umber, to a deep chromium orange., then peel off the frisket mask to reveal the reverse silhouette of the seeding grasses of the Sweetwters plains.
A photo of an actual Little Sparrowhawk, "Sax" rescued by the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust
I took this photo of a black rhino while on safari at the Sweetwaters tent camp, run by the Ol Pejeta conservancy. Black rhinos have norrow, peaked lips and forage from shrubs and bushes as much as they graze. The white rhinos, for which Ol Pejeta leads the world in conservacny efforts, by contrast have blunt, flat lips and are exclusively grazers.
The image did not need any photo compositing, so I cleared the background, laid in a panel area and traced the outlines I needed, then printed them out and taped them to my home-made 3ft x 2ft lightbox.
Using a lightbox leaves the watercolor paper pristine and unmarked by messy pencil sketch outlines or near indelible graphite transfer paper lines.
After blocking in the head area, wet-on-wet, for the most part, and very quickly, I then scatter large sea salt crystals in select areas.
The sea salt creates excquisite natural mini-blooms and pigment concentrations in a pattern reminiscent of the rhino's pebbled skin.
Here I have glazed over the head, adding some wrinkle details and deepening the tone. While this paint is still very wet, I re-apply sea salt to add another layer of texture.
I lay in broad, loose wet-on-wet and dry brush color for the body base layer, then sprinkle sea salt liberally over the area for texture. You can see the salt already beginning to suck in water and accrete pigment in its unique, randomized patterns.
Here you can see the beautiful, random pebbling patterns created by the sea salt.
I continue glazing to build up shadows and contrast in body area, adding more sea salt occasionally for texture.
Here I begin to create the characterful wrinkles that are unique to each rhino.
I finalize most of the details on the head and neck areas, deepening shadows on wrinkles to add dimension and capture directional sunlight.
I lay in more wet, darker shadow glazing, then add more sea salt to build on textures.
I over-paint the background panel in acrylics, blending from alazarin crimson, darkened with a touch of prussian blue and burnt umber, to a deep chromium orange., then peel off the frisket mask to reveal the reverse silhouette of the seeding grasses of the Sweetwters plains.
