Birth of a Hog Part 4

Here I've added a wash of red to the entire painting. Again, the details of the underpainting remain and I don't lose any structure or detail.

Birth of a Hog Part 3

In this step I have applied a burnt sienna wash to the entire painting. This accomplishes a couple of tasks. One, it completely covers all the white areas so I don't have to worry about it showing through at a later point. And two, by applying this base coat, it requires less paint in the following steps. Another added bonus from the sienna wash is the nice medium value it gives for me to work my darks and lights on top of. This step goes quickly as I don't have to be particular with my brush strokes.

Birth of a Hog Part 2

In today's post I have a picture of my first step of painting on the canvas. At this stage I have blown up my sketch to fit the 3 x 4 foot canvas. To do this I simply divided both my sketch and my canvas into an equal number of squares and transferred the contents of each square to the corresponding square on the canvas. This is known as "gridding." In this photo I have blocked in the major areas of light and shade with black paint. This will serve as the back bone or foundation for the rest of the painting.

Birth of a Hog Part 1

Today I thought I would give some insight into how I go about designing and executing a large animal close up painting like my new Raging Hog.

In this photo you can see my initial sketch. This is the culmination of several smaller thumbnail idea sketches. At this point I have worked out the basic forms and values, and this will be my guide as I complete the final piece. A grid pattern was later added in order to transfer the 8 inch sketch to the 4 foot canvas.

Mad Hog Tatoo

This tattoo was inspired by my Mad Hog artwork. Nick Peirce is the talented artist who placed the ink on the skin. Prints of the Mad Hog are available in my shop and online.