Thursday 9 May 2019

Blue Zebra


2/5/2019 Last month saw us  taking the grandchildren to Twycross Zoo and I just loved the zebras.
Dusted off my box of acrylics for this one. Good start with the drawing, but gave up trying to draw the stripes - just a nightmare trying to work out what should be black and what should be white! In the end, I started painting the stripes directly from source. Haven't made up my mind about the background yet, want to keep it a bit surreal and colourful for a more contemporary look.



7/5/2019 I've learned to my sanity, painting a zebra with all those stripes is a major headache! Wish I'd have continued with drawing them, as it would have made the painting stage easier. Today's session saw all of the black stripes in place, and a lot of the whites. Thing is, it's not just black and white, and while there is always form to think about in painting, there is also anatomy with this painting - the way the stripes flow over the bones and muscles. I will need to re-iterate this more in subsequent layers


 9/5/2019 In the end, I decided on a very muted background so that the zebra remained the point of focus in the painting.

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