Elephant:

During Jan and James' last trip to Tanzania in June, they were charged and bluff charged many times by elephants. This was quite a different experience as the elephants they usually encounter in Kenya are so acclimated to the vehicles that they rarely are aggressive. Jan was so "charged" (pun intended) by all the behaviors she wanted to do a painting of this experience.

Jan and James were charged by TWO male elephants at once who were in musth (a hormonal condition male elephants experience that makes them VERY aggressive). This one was charging from the front and there was one also coming from the side. Jan managed to snap this quick photo as their guide was throwing their vehicle into reverse and gunning it! This was the road to camp so they had to wait about 30 minutes until the elephants moved off the road - and even then as they drove quickly past this same elephant trumpeted and charged again!   This is Jan on the same trip, in the Serengeti, during a little calmer moment with elephants. However, mothers with calves can be just as dangerous as bulls in musth, so Jan and the guide were keeping a close eye out on these animals behavior!

This photo shows an unusual situation for Jan - and that is - the photo she is working from along with the drawing done to size that shows she is going to do the painting almost EXACTLY like a photo she took. Most paintings are combinations of several photos - but in this case Jan composed this photo exactly as she knew she was going to want to paint it - up close and full frame. Jan and James followed this bull for quite some time and he periodically bluff charged and threatened them. They took many photos of him - but Jan really loved this one. The only changes she is making is that she added his tail "swishing" and larger more interesting tusks.

Jan has again decided not to mask out the elephant. The background is simple light grasses that can be laid in very flat. Jan does however lightly draw in the elephant first and work somewhat around the shape just so as not to waste time doing grass in an area that is going to be covered by the elephant. Here the grass, twigs and far off bushes and trees have been started

The form of the elephant has been blocked in with dark brown/purple paint.

Jan is transferring the drawing of the elephant from the tracing paper to the painting using a white artist transfer paper.

Here is the painting showing the transferred drawing. Notice that only some main elements of the elephant have been transferred at this point - look back at the photo of the drawing and the reference photo. Jan has drawn out more detailed creases and folds, but at this stage the texture will just be loosely applied and Jan will keep going back in to create all the details.

Jan has now masked out the tusks to keep them "clean". She is then creating the underlying texture of the elephant's skin by applying a very thin layer of off white paint and then crumbling cellophane into it to create an "organic" texture that simply can't be achieved with a brush.

Here the entire elephant has had the under texture done, and then a unifying brown wash has been done over him.

The eyes have been done, and Jan is starting to work back into all the folds and creases, starting to detail out the shadows and highlights

Here is a closeup of Jan working on the ear. Unfortunately Jan's hand is in focus, but not the ear - however you can get the general idea. She is using a technique in acrylic called "scrumbling" where the brush is "scrumbled" around, splaying out the bristles to create a rough, random application of the paint.

Jan is going back in and pulling out more detail in the creases and folds.

And once more a brown wash has been applied in preparation to repeat the process again until Jan feels the elephant skin has the realistic textured look she is striving for.

Here is the completed painting. It is 11 x 14 and is entitled "AGITATED - Study". The reason it is called a study is that Jan is planning on doing it as a larger painting at a later date, so this will serve as the "study" for it.