Lion:

Jan has spent countless hours in the field studying lions. Here she is in one of the safari vehicles photograhing a close male lion.

When Jan has the opportunity she does extensive sketching in her journal/sketchbook. Here are some examples of drawings of lions in her journal and a photo of her in Africa sketching (those are wildebeest in the background).

This is a lion that Jan saw in Samburu last year lying along the river with another male. She really liked the dappled lighting and the river in the background. Here is the drawing done to size with some of the photos she took that she is working from.

The lion is masked off and the background has been started.

Here Jan is doing the sandy dirt area of the sandbar that the lion is laying on. She is creating "granules" of sand by putting wet paint on a toothbrush and then drawing her finger across the bristles. Notice the rest of the area is protected with newspaper as this technique is VERY messy!

The background is complete, and the lion is now blocked in a dark brown, and the drawing has been transferred with white artist transfer paper.

The lion is now "drawn" in with off white paint. This technique uses carefully observed long delineated strokes for the mane, but since the body coat on a lion is very slick and tight the strokes are applied very wet and small on the rest of him.

Here the brown unifying wash has been applied to the lion.

This is the finished painting - "RIVER ROYAL", 12 x 24".