Speaking of Art Blog

When most people think of an artist at work in their studio, they don’t actually think the artist is doing REAL work. They assume that artistry is just an occupation where an adult gets to creatively play all day. Well yes, there is some play involved, and if an artist is truly in the zone while their creative juices are flowing it can be great fun and feel a lot like play. But trust me, it’s not all play.

I wrote a whole blog article about how I need to prepare my work surface, choose a color scheme, and draw a few preliminary thumbnail sketches before I even start a new piece of artwork. Here is a link to that article, Before the First Stroke. But in addition to that preliminary work, I am also sometimes needing to do in-depth research online. Yes that’s right, research, like the kind a college student does.

For instance, with my recent series of bird paintings, I simply don’t know enough about individual birds to understand what some features of the bird’s anatomy are, what color they usually are, and what characteristics of the bird are essential elements to include, especially if my reference photos don’t pick up on those subtleties. It helps me TREMENDOUSLY to be married to Randy Pals, a bird watching guru. He’s regularly looking over my shoulder as I work on a bird painting, telling me when I’m on course or when I need to look at more images of that bird online.

Thank goodness for the internet! It has saved me so much time. In minutes I can Google the name of a bird I’ve photographed, and see a hundred or more images of that one bird from all different angles. That’s the research I’m talking about.

Case in point: I recently finished painting this 20x16” pastel painting of a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk titled, Hawkeye. While almost all adult Red-shouldered Hawks have some common distinctive features, juveniles can vary widely depending on how close or far they are from being considered an adult. I remembered that the juvenile I photographed had more yellow-orange on its chest feathers than my reference photo showed, so I looked online and found a few juveniles that had more yellow-orange in their chest feathers. Then I knew just how yellow-orange I could go in my painting.

Sometimes my reference photo isn’t very good in one part of a bird’s anatomy if, for instance, a tree branch or a leaf is blocking my view. In that case, I go online to find an image of that same bird that includes that particular detail. It doesn’t even have to be from the same angle, just enough info to show me how something is shaped or what color it is.

Do I like doing this research? Heavens, no! But do I have to? Well yes, especially because I have a photo realistic style and so it would be hard for me to fudge on a detail when the whole rest of the bird is tightly detailed. Perhaps an artist whose style is much looser could get away with fudging, but I can’t. And so……I research. Sometimes it’s a real drag and it usually does NOT feel like playtime, but the end result is that much more satisfying to me.

Animal artists whose work is tight and detailed understand this. We want to get it “right”. We want to portray that animal’s stance, coloring, details, surroundings, and essential gestures in as honest and true a portrayal as possible. People want that in a portrait of themselves from a portrait artist, so why should we do any less with animal portraiture? They are amazing and complex creatures, and we owe it to them to do our research and get the job done right.

Do I have to do the research? Yes, and the payoff in the end will be worth it.