Lions:

As most of you know Jan and James lead trips to Kenya. On the last trip, Oklahoma State Senator John Ford and his wife Mary came. They commissioned a painting of three male lions lying together in deep grass that they saw on the trip.

Here is James with John and Mary standing out of the top of the Land Rover. Jan was experimenting with a new camera and was testing out the "B&W" function   Last May Jan's and James' head guide, Preston Mutinda came to Oklahoma to see his daughter Emma graduate from college. Jan and James, through their Rotary club, sponsored Emma's college education through annual fund raisers. Senator Ford is a member of the same Rotary Club. Senator Ford gave a personal tour of the Oklahoma Capitol to Preston, Jan and James. This photo was taken on the floor of the Senate.

Jan has elected not to do the masking off of the lions. There are several reasons, but he main one is the "manes". It is hard to mask off all the little hairs of the lions' manes. So she is laying in the background grasses with VERY thin paint so as not to create any ridges.

More detail has been done to the background grass, and the lions, along with the foreground, have been laid in with dark brown paint.

Here is Jan transferring the drawing on the tracing paper to the painting using a white artist transfer paper.

Here is the painting with the drawing transferred.

The far left face is done and hair coat including mane has been "drawn" in with off white paint.

A wash of brown paint has been applied to the lion (the photo is slightly out of focus).

The far left lion is finished and grasses have been started in front of him.

The middle lion has now been started. His face is done and his hair coat and mane have been "drawn" out.

This photo shows an interesting transition. The far left lion is finished, the center one has the preliminary base coat done and the brown wash has been applied, and the far right one has only been blocked in with dark brown paint.

The center lion is now completed.

Jan wanted to check the anatomy of the shape of the face of the back lion before she started work on it. So she photographed a lion skull she has from several angles to check the bone structure.

Here the back lion on the right has been drawn in with the off white paint. Jan has also started pulling grasses in front to the front lion. Putting habitat elements such as grasses or branches across the subjects help to "incorporate" the subject into the scene

The brown unifying wash has been done on the last lion in preparation for the finishing touches.

Here is the completed painting - "WE THREE KINGS". It is 14 x 18" and will be available soon as a giclée print.