Longhorn:

Jan does not often do "domestic" animals - but she does enjoy doing such things as wild horses and also longhorns. Both symbolize a "wilder" time of our history. Longhorns were the preferred animal in the "old west" because the were so hardy and independent. They could be left for long times unattended and they would be able to find food and water, unlike our cattle of today. They could survive bad weather and long drives. Besides - Jan just loves all the horn shapes and patterns!

 

Jan received a commission to do a longhorn in an autumn scene. Here are a couple of the main photos she is working from. The steer is named "Goal Post". He is at the WOOLAROC Museum and wildlife refuge outside of Bartlesville. He was named during a contest open to the public that visited the museum. Jan enjoys showing photos of him to Africans - especially Maasai who hold cattle in very high esteem - and they are always shocked at the size of his horns - saying "Oh, everything in America is big!" The background Jan shot near Woolaroc. This is a typical Eastern Oklahoma fall scene with white grass seed tops and red sumac.

Since this was a commission Jan did a small drawing to submit to the client. Once approved she used a grid system to enlarge it to the full size drawing on the tracing paper.

There are sort of two ways to "do" a painting - putting light on dark, or dark on light. Jan usually does light on dark, but in this case she wants the leaves and grass to really glow with the light coming through them, so she is going to lay in bright clear washes of "autumn" colors in the tree line, and a bright yellow/green in the grass area. She is using a watercolor "mop" brush with the paint very thinned down with water. She will then add back in dark colors on top.

Jan is now laying in the leafy area of the tree line by splaying out an old brush and building up darker colors of greens and browns, still allowing the oranges and yellows to show through in places.

Here the tree line is completed. Some slight detail feeling has been done to the leaves - not too much - this tree line is far off, so to much detail would not create the necessary feeling of depth. A few trunks painted in give the final feeling that these are woods. The grass has not been started, but you can see the loose brush strokes Jan initially put in that she will build on.

For those of you who follow Jan's Paintings in Progress you may have noticed that she has not drawn in the steer and masked him off. Since she is working in such thin layers she is going to wait and add the longhorn on top. However she will lightly draw it in and work "around" it so as not to waste time doing detail that will be covered up.

Jan is now detailing out the grass. She is using a "rake" type brush that has the hairs divided up - "poking" it sideways to create the look of the fluffy seed heads.

Here the grass is completed in the mid ground. The foreground grass will be short, but some areas will be more detailed once the steer is done. Notice how Jan "worked" around where the steer is going to be.

The steer has been blocked in with a purple/brown base.

Jan is now transferring the details of the drawing with white artist transfer paper.

Jan is working on the details of the face and horns. In this case, because the coat is so short, she is not "drawing" it out first in paint and then doing the washes. Here she is actually painting the colors as they will be in the finished painting.

This is the completed painting "AUTUMN LONGHORN" 20 x 36".