White Rhino:

Jan is starting an 11 x 14 of a big white bull rhino that they saw at Lewa named "Jumo". Here is Jan sketching him lying in the sun.

Here is the sketch Jan was doing of Juma. Suddenly the oxpeckers flew in and landed. Jan quickly sketched them in before they immediately flew off. Fortunately James was handy with his camera and snapped one quick photo before the birds were gone!

The drawing done to size on velum tracing paper.

Jan did not masque out the rhino in this painting. Rather she just jumped in and is laying in the background grasses very thinly and loosely.

The rhino and oxpecker have been blocked in with a dark/brown/purple base.

The drawing has been transferred.

Jan is now creating an underpainting of texture for the rough skin of the rhino. She is using crumbled cellophane to achieve the effect.

A brown unifying wash is then done over the rhino in preparation of doing the final detailing.

Now it's time to go back over the wash adding details. Since she is just painting "skin" the technique is of course different than when she is doing fur or feathers. Mostly with the rhino she is observing folds, creases and texture.

Jan did a lot of reading and research prior to her trip to Lewa. She wrote some important facts and details in her journal and also did some sketches. The sketch on the left shows the difference in shape between a black and a white rhino horn. Interestingly the White or "Square lipped rhino"'s horn is square based, and the Black's is round. The horn is made up of keratin - the same thing your fingernails are made of. There is no boney inner core such as found with cow horn. On the skull there are simply bumps of bone that the horn "sits" on. The rhino is still heavily poached for its horn. It is used in ancient traditional medicine, but the biggest use of poached horns is making handles for ceremonial daggers worn by men in Yemin. It is a rite of passage for a boy coming into manhood to wear one of these daggers. If you look at photos from Yemin, all the men are wearing this dagger.

The rhino is almost completed. Notice the details such as the scratches on his sides. These were probably made as he walked through thick acacia brush with thorns, but may have been made by another rhino' s horn.

Jan is now going to do the dirt area in front of the rhino. She covers the area she doesn't want the spatter to get on with paper towels and artist masking fluid. She then dips an old toothbrush into a yellow/white paint. Drawing her finger across the bristles will cause a random spatter pattern giving the impression of dirt and small stones.

The oxpeckers have been done. These are red billed oxpeckers - there is also another species - the yellow billed. Both can be seen at one time on big herbivores, this guy just happened to only have red billed on him. Oxpeckers eat the ticks and other insects off the animals. They also peck at any wounds which helps keep them from getting infected. Another value to the large animals is that the birds will call an alarm if a predator is approaching. This is called a symbiotic relationship, where both species help the other. The big herbivores get cleaned of pests and have an "early warning system", and the big herbivores provide ready food for the oxpeckers.

Here is the completed painting - 11 x 14" titled "ALL IN A ROW". Jan will be sending this to the Bennington Center for the Arts invitational exhibition AMERICAN ARTISTS ABROAD running August 8- September 13. The painting is for sale. If you are interested contact Jan at mcguireandhines@aol.com.