Thursday, September 8, 2011

Just an update on how the Mammoth painting is going...I am repositioning the tusks, as you can see with my rough underpainting.  He is looking a bit bow-legged as I am refiguring his body.  Yes, I know his legs go too far up! Remember the process is a creative one!  (Kind of reminds me of one of hubby's uncles, who used to wear his pants up to his chin)  I have enlarged his ears, and I am now trying to reposition his body to the left.  I am already happier with the results.  Tomorrow I will lower the horizon line, as I think it is competing with the ears.  Hubby has made me a moll stick, which is rather like a drawing bridge, to help me.  The stick is about 30" long, with a ball at the end.  I can lean it across the painting and steady my hand on it.  It will really help when I start working the details of this huge piece!  It is slow going right now, but once I get comfortable with the position of the underpainting, the rest will fly by!  By the way, just because I wasn't sure what I was painting was a mammoth or a mastadon, I went back to do some research again (it has been 3 years since I started this painting!) and the differences between the two are unmistakable.  This is definitely a Wooly Mammoth from the Siberian Tundra area.  The mountain range behind is an actual place in Siberia, and the designs that I am carving into the tusks are from early native folklore.  Hope to have much more done when I check back in!

3 comments:

Marybeth said...

Thanks for showing your painting process. I am interested in how you get to the final piece.

Anonymous said...

OM gosh what a difference that makes!! I love love love it. You are the painter girl! That is really something to be proud of , but all of your work is,..........well maybe not that cat...........hehe. Seedy

Rose Altom said...

Seedy, you're the best friend an artist could have! Thanx for the support and everything else that you do!