Cougar:

Jan does all her own research - never copying photos from books, magazines etc., and she does not buy her reference from other photographers. This photo shows her in Montana photographing a trained mountain lion that is used in movies and other purposes. It is STILL a cougar, and as a naturalist she (along with the trainer of course) must observe his behavior closely to not get into any dangerous situations.

Jan has done several paintings of this cougar, including a couple in trees. She loves the positive and negative spaces created by the tree limbs. Here she has done the drawing to size in preparation of starting the painting. The drawing is taped with "hinges" at the top so she can flip the drawing back and forth as needed.

In the photo the background was an evergreen covered hillside. Instead Jan wanted a mountain slope, so she went into her "mountain" file and pulled out some photos to use as reference that showed the side of a mountain covered in snow. There were also some nifty clouds floating by that Jan thought would be interesting since she wants this to be a "high" vantage point scene. In this photo she has laid in the mountain slope and is now creating the clouds by using a watercolor "mop" brush. She is applying the paint very thinly.

Now that the background is completed Jan is transferring the drawing to the painting surface with the white Saral Artist Transfer paper.

Jan has mixed up a purple/brown color which she has used to paint the cougar and the tree. She is now using the artist masking fluid to cover areas of the cougar where she doesn't want her painting strokes and her cellophane technique getting onto, when she is working on the tree.

Jan has now created the underlying organic texture of the tree by using her cellophane technique of crumpling the cellophane into the wet paint after it is applied to the painting surface.

A unifying brown wash has been put over the tree.

Jan is working from the right to left. She has completed the detailing work on most of the tree behind the cougar and the branch he is standing on. She has removed the masking material and has begun detailing the large part of the stump area in front of the cat. Jan loves these gnarly old trees with woodpecker holes and peeling bark areas!

The tree is done, and the drawing has been transferred with the artist transfer paper to the cougar in preparation for starting the work on detailing him out.

Jan has begun work on the face. The eyes, nose and mouth are done. She is now doing her technique of drawing out the hair coat with off white paint to create depth. On flat coated animals such as most of the ones in Africa, she can use a different technique. This one is very time consuming but does the trick. She likes you to feel you can actually get your fingers into the hair and found this is the most effective - if not the easiest - way she can do that.

Here you can see that Jan doesn't actually draw each hair out individually with a tiny brush as many people assume she does. Your eye doesn't see each hair, just as it doesn't see each blade of grass in a scene, you KNOW they are there so many beginning artists try to actually draw or paint each one. But it is better to do "clumps" your eye will read it as more realistic. To do this Jan splays out an old brush as shown here. You can see the reference photo she is working from taped close. She can do this on a acrylic painting, as the paint, although water based when wet, dries very quickly to a completely permanent surface.

The underpainting/drawing in paint of the coat of the cat is now done.

A unifying burnt umber (brown) wash has been done over the entire cat. People often ask Jan why she goes to so much trouble, only to cover it up. The underpainting/drawing is never fully covered up - but - mostly Jan says it's like building a house. You have to do all the initial construction or the finished walls would fall down!

Jan has begun the final detailing of the cougar. The head is now done.

This is the finished painting "LOFTY VIEW", 11" x 14".