Monday, August 3, 2009

Finishing and Choosing the Title

For the leopard, I painted the spots first. The surrounding color was next and then I went back and touched up the spots. Putting in the "black" spots first helps me get a feeling of how the underlying muscle structure can be portrayed which then aids in the shading. With a leopard this small, it was inevitable that my background shading on the leopard’s body would cover the edges of the spots I had just painted. Hence, the spot do-over.

Sometimes I have a title and an idea for a piece years before I paint it. Other times the title will come to me during the painting process. And lastly, there are paintings, like this one, where I struggle for a title once the painting is completed. Yesterday afternoon it came to me. I was thinking of the fact that the painting is a silhouette. Serengeti Silhouette
Original Oil by Linda Besse
22.75" X 27"
Detail

5 comments:

Terry Miller said...

Hey Linda, enjoyed watching this one come together . . . makes my whole being want to go back to Africa! Well done.

Peter Brown said...

Terrific result Linda!

I've earmarked a trip to Botswana in a travel brochure and would willingly gamble with my future financial security if such a trip became remotely possible.

In the meantime, I guess I'll have to get my kicks vicariously through great paintings such as this one!

Unknown said...

Doesn't this seem like ions ago? I love it!

Linda Besse said...

Thank you Terry, Peter, and Becky for the generous comments! Makes me feel that slogging through all the greenery was worth it. I might even attempt it again in a few.....decades.
;)

sschopfer said...

You could have called it something catchy like "Leopard Climbing Carefully Down an Acacia Tree in the Serengeti After Stashing a Zebra in the Branches for a Snack Later Because He Didn't Have a Refrigerator, and Even If He Did, There's No Electricity Handy, Anyway; and Besides, He Lacks Opposable Thumbs So Trying to Plug In a Refrigerator Would Be Problematic".