Rhino:

Jan needed to decide what major painting she was going to do for her SCI donation painting. Since she and James just got back from researching black rhinos, and after discussion with SCI, she decided to do a charging rhino.

Sometimes artists will revisit past paintings to reexplore the concept and idea they were trying to achieve. In Jan's case she had painted a running black rhino way back in 1998. It has remained one of her all time favorites. This is it - it was called "Comin' Thru" and features a running black rhino with white headed buffalo weavers. She liked the idea of the strong backlighting and thought doing something along these lines would make a dynamic composition for her painting for SCI.

Jan pulled all her reference photos from her file and began looking for all that she had of running/charging black rhino. Looking at the photos, with the idea still in mind of a dramatic/dynamic composition and lighting, she began to do some thumbnail sketches to come up with an idea that she liked. She decided that she liked the middle sketch - with rhino coming directly at the viewer.

Here Jan has done the drawing to size of 36 x 24" which she will transfer in different stages to the painting surface with white artist transfer paper as needed.

Since the painting is going to feature the rhino coming thru dust, Jan has elected not to do any masking out of the rhino at this stage - rather to just jump in and get a swirling dust feeling that she will the do the rhino on top of. Using a variety of white, off white, rust, yellow and brown, Jan gets to work creating the dust by applying very wet paint with a mop brush and then rubbing it together, swirling and patting with a foam sponge.

So Jan is going to begin work on the foreground. Her technique of creating life-like dirt and sand by running her finger across an old tooth brush is very messy. She has now transferred the drawing of the rhino and then, using artist masking fluid, she has protected the legs of the rhino. The rest of the painting is covered in newspapers to protect it from the over spatters.

Jan continues to work on the ground, creating ridges and bumps with off white paint.

The ground is done, and the rhino has been blocked in with a dark brown paint, and the drawing has been transferred.

As you all know - Jan loves to create the look of texture. Rhino skin is a particular challenge to create realistically. Here Jan is beginning the process by "scrumbling" an off white paint. Scrumbling is a term used by acrylic painters when they splay out the hairs of an old brush then scoot and push the paint around.

The body has been loosely scrumbled in, and the drawing of the face has been transferred. Notice how Jan is already beginning to create dust on the back legs of the rhino by applying a very thin and wet layer of off white paint and then patting it with the foam sponge.

A brown wash has been put over the areas of the rhino that Jan scrumbled with white paint.

More detail has been done on the body of the rhino, and the face has been started. Notice also that Jan has used her "toothbrush" technique for kicked up dust/dirt.

Here is a snapshot of some of the reference photos Jan has in her file. This shows the closeups she takes whenever she can both in the wild and in zoos of things such as eyes, feet, skin texture etc., etc. She used the photo of this eye to do the eye of the rhino in the painting.

Jan has now done the eyes and the horns are pretty much complete along with the left side of the face.

Jan added a few acacia thorn branches over the back of the rhino to give the feeling he has suddenly emerged from behind a tree, and viola - here is the finished painting - "CHARGE!!". It is 36 x 24" and will be auctioned at SCI's convention in Reno in January. Giclée prints will be available soon - reserve your number now!