Ideas and Intentions "Leones"

My creativity process began mainly with the idea of painting an animal. I would like to create a realistic effect as I am intrigued on how to create the texture and movement that fur and hair has. I feel like animals and any form of life help complete landscapes and cause the illusion of movement in the places being painted. At first, my intention was to draw a dog. This idea came to me because I want to make a painting of my dog ​​and this painting would help improve my ability to improve my ability to paint canines. After this idea was discarded I wanted to make an African savanna with a gazelle in the background. This new idea initiated because I wanted to integrate an animal in a landscape to cause a beautiful effect on the whole picture. Gazelles are very graceful and their matte colors blend well with the yellow tones of the savanna creating an incredible visual balance. After this I was interested in doing the painting of a snake. This idea arose mainly due to the texture of the scales. I was intrigued and interested in making one since I think it would be entertaining to create the scales with paint. I had to forget this idea since I preferred to make a close-up of an animal instead of painting it in a place or with something else because the idea of the snake consisted in drawing it being held by a hand. I finally decided to paint a lion by investigating more about artists like Marie-Rosalie Bonheur who drew realistic animals, who among her paintings has some lions and other felines. Marie-Rosalie Bonheur is an important artist in the history of art since she was the most famous painter of the first three quarters of the 19th century, thanks to the influence that her works had on art, she managed to be recognized as a serious artist in a time when this title was only recognized in men, while in women painting was defined as something they did solely for entertainment. I really liked this idea as the lions are matte colored like the gazelle, they have long hair and short hair creating movement and depth and it is large enough to be able to make a close-up of their face. My choice to make two sleeping lions together originated when I found a photo and liked it best since they both show peace and happiness. I made two different sketches to decide whether to make a single lion which shows determination and courage or two sleeping lions to show peace, happiness and the comfort they feel between them.

My expression of art and main purpose in this work is to create an effect in the viewer so they can understand what the lion is feeling. I will achieve this by making it very realistic, putting special detail in the eyes. When painting a human you can easily show that person's emotions because of their facial features, if they are happy they smile, if they are angry they frown, etc. In contrast, animals do not have facial features that express their feelings. This is an important factor because for this reason I will use the eyes of lions to express this emotion either by creating sparkle in the eyes when they are open or if they are closed, curving them slightly to show peace. This will help the viewer understand and relate to the lion's feelings as much as possible, showing that despite not being of the same species they feel emotions just like us.

I experimented with different techniques, both being wet and dry. In my experimentation I used acrylic paint, watercolors, Prismacolor pencils and graphite pencils. After doing these tests, I decided to create my project on a cloth canvas with a square wooden support and use the technique of acrylic paint. The different sizes of the brushes will help me create an effect of depth and movement. I will create the effect of hair by using a thin round brush. This painting will help me acquire skills such as accurately drawing animal hair as well as creating depth in the same animal so that it can look realistic.

Sketches:

Real pictures of lions:

In these images you can clearly see the emotions that the lions are feeling since they are the real life photos. In both, the lions' eyes are the main factor that helps the viewer interpret what the lion was feeling at the time the photograph was taken.

Technique trials: