Kudu:

Jan decided she wanted to do a painting of a magnificent kudu for her upcoming exhibitions. She has seen and photographed them in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia. Here is a photo of Jan and fellow artist Dan Smith in a tree stand at Tambuti Wilderness outside Otavi, Namibia waiting for kudu to approach. She also photographed here in sunken blinds at waterholes, and also at Etosha National Park. While the best photos she has of kudu are from here, she decided to use a different habitat photo with lusher greens than were found during the dry season when she was in Namibia. This is something artists have the luxury of doing - creating their own environments and scenes for their subjects.

Jan decided on a tall thin vertical format for the painting to accentuate the beautiful spiral horns of the kudu. Here is the drawing down to scale of 24 x 12" ready to transfer to the painting surface.

The kudu has been masked off with artist masking fluid and saranwrap to keep this area clean and smooth while Jan does the background.

This photo shows Jan creating the far off dark tree area. She has laid in a mix of dark greens and is now "pulling out" some leafy areas by dabbing a natural sea sponge into lighter green paint and lightly touching it to the darker areas.

Jan has begun laying in the grasses, paying attention to light and shadow. Notice she is doing this by splaying out an old brush creating a natural and realistic look to the background grasses.

Here most of the middle and foreground grasses are in place. However, more detail will be done in the foreground once the kudu is finished. Note the photo reference at the left. Whenever Jan is on a research photo trip - whether it's in Yellowstone or Africa - she is taking lots of pictures of habitat elements as well as animals. These photos show grasses and acacia branches she has photographed on one of her many trips to Africa. People are always amazed by how many photos Jan and James take - especially now with digital - but LOTS of them are habitat as well as animals. Being a naturalist Jan is a stickler for accuracy, down to making sure it is the correct type of grass for the area she's painting!

The masking material has been removed from the kudu, and Jan is now creating leafy acacia branches behind his head. This is done with a different type of brush than she usually uses - it is a flat brush that has spaced out hairs called a "rake". Jan has found dabbing the brush into paint and then dabbing onto the painting creates the look of the compound leaves of the acacia tree.

The acacia branches are finished, and the kudu has been blocked in with dark brown paint.

This is a photo of Jan's and James' living room that shows a kudu skull over the fireplace. Being able to observe skulls on a continual basis helps Jan understand horn and antler shapes as well as deepening overall knowledge and understanding of anatomy in general.

The drawing was transferred using the white artist transfer paper. The eyes and nose are done, and now Jan has started on the horns.

Here the face is started. Jan is using a different technique this time for the fur since kudus have such a slick, tight coat, and because of the angle of the animal she felt that she didn't need to "draw" out the hair coat first with paint as she usually does. She is basically using the same technique but actually using the specific colors she wants for the final coat

The horns, face and neck are now completed.

This is the completed painting -"INTO THE SUN" 24 x 12".

UPDATE: Jan decided after looking at the painting for a few days that some birds would add movement and interest to the painting. This is now the final version of "INTO THE SUN" with some red billed oxpeckers added.