Today I dedicated myself to drawing and painting badgers.
This week I have been asked by two separate people if I had any badger paintings to sell.
I only have one which isn’t brilliant and was painted years ago.
Since then I hope I have improved my painting a bit and so I decided to focus on these gorgeous creatures.
Here are my rough sketches and the progress I made today to complete this gentle portrait.
I used a variety of media to warm up to this animal.
I used Wolff’s carbon sticks on Grey toned Strathmore paper.
Then I did some head shapes in watercolour on stretched 100% cotton rag hot pressed paper.
The eye was something I really wanted to get perfectly and so I did some slow and accurate studies of one eye in pencil.
Finally I did some very quick and jagged Sharpie black pen sketches.
All I wanted to do was feel my way with my tools around the shapes and markings.
It was fun to do even though a lot of the results are not very good. This is what warm ups are for!
I wanted it to have wabi sabi qualities and left a lot in the mist and only placed hard accents here and there.
Here are some progress shots from the murky indistinct beginnings onwards.
I wanted the badger to emerge from a blurry purple grey landscape – possibly on a frosty late autumn morning such as today’s.
To shop this print at my online gallery please click the image below!
What winter animals are you currently observing where you live?
Brilliant! I love this blog Alison and the way you have fun ‘warming up’ – I think I need to develop that a lot. The final result is wonderful.
Regards
Deb Carrel Somerset
Sent from my iPad
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Thanks Deb. I am glad it resonated with you. Sportspeople, musicians and others warm up but we artists expect miracles! What’s it like down in Somerset? Frosty?
Yes, very frosty here on the Levels. My hanging baskets have finally had it! I’ve been watching squirrels dashing around the field, secretly stashing acorns – can’t imagine how they will find them again! LOL. Your badger has inspired me to have a go at capturing their antics in watercolour – wish me luck!
I bet it is Deb – do you walk out much? Are you worried about flooding? That’s lovey to observe the squirrels. Perhaps you can point out their stashes to them when they need them! I hope you enjoy painting badgers – A