Hey Happy Campers!
I am posting up to the minute progress photos of "GiGi" over on my Facebook Fan Page! Here I am going to assemble the comments and post in one area for those who start following Jeff's progress in the middle and want to catch up. MATERIALS: 15" x 30" gallery wrapped canvas, 1.5" deep. Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Paints. Palette knives and brushes.
Meet "GiGi"! My grown up, favorite daughter Emily LOVES giraffes! I painted "Jeff" for her new apartment last fall and have been wanting to paint another giraffe. This original will be for sale.
Emily came up with the names for both giraffes. I found a great reference photo on a CCO photo site.
I painted the background white first to get some paint on the canvas and smooth out the gessoed canvas. Then I used Neutral gray 5 and white with a large brush to paint the gray background. I used the same Liquitex pro paint colors I used for "Jeff's" painting.
Next is to use a charcoal pencil and map out "GiGi" on the canvas. I REALLY like having a map on the canvas, especially larger ones. I can get lost in painting details and forget about the basic structure of the giraffe. Part of that mapping out of things is to next paint reminders of where I want the whitest whites and the darkest colors.
"GiGi's" tongue will not be this purple in the final painting. I think it will be similar to "Jeff's" tongue.
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Post 2
Some comments on what I did. I painted the background darker from the corners in. I want "GiGi" to pop more. I get all the color down (second to last photo). Then I go back over every inch of "GiGi" to add detail, soften some of the angles. Both deepen all the spots with another layer of color and knock them back with mixing white in areas, capturing that faded/fur look better. Grayed her tongue, put on some more chin hairs, defined eyelashes and all kinds of other details. Acrylics are all about layers and that extra layer of paint in areas really gives it a richer look. So does taking the last pic at night with out any day light coming in the window :)
Took a photo of my messy 8" styrofoam palette. I like the styrofoam plates, they will fit in a gallon zip lock bag and keep the paint fresh for a few days :) It kind of shows how I mix a little color as I go rather than mix a whole bunch of shades for a painting like this one.
The reference photo is from Pixabay.com It is a CCO photo. I was drawn to it because of the tongue in the nose and the side lighting. I removed the background in the photo using Photoshop. That way I could just focus on the giraffe.
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