Reflection "Leones"

My creativity process began when I decided that I wanted to paint an animal. My main goal was to create a realistic effect as I am interested in the way texture and movement within an animal's fur affects the way it looks. Landscapes and other animate objects also have a lot of important movement within them. At first, my intention was to draw a dog. This idea came to me at first because I wanted to make a painting of my dog ​​as well as I wanted to improve my ability to create dog hair with acrylics. After considering different animals for my project, for example ​​painting gazelles or a snake, I decided to paint two lions. I really liked this idea as they have a matte colored palette like the gazelle, they have a variation of hair length which creates depth and it is big enough to have a close-up of their face without it being blurry. I made two different sketches to decide whether to paint a single lion that showed determination and courage or two sleeping lions that expressed peace, happiness and comfort comfort between them. My final choice to make two sleeping lions together happened because I liked how the photo showed different expressions for each lion even though they both reflect comfort. When I created my first sketches, I made them with graphite and afterwards I tried different techniques such as sanguine and watercolor before looking at acrylic paint in order to define the material I was going to use. I made the lions of two different colors so that I could show the difference between them and that each one expressed different things. The one from above expresses protection while the lion below expresses fatigue and even love for the one above since, despite being annoyed, it is not doing anything to avoid it.

I began this painting with a combination of yellow toned acrylics to give one of the lions a starting base. I used square brushes since the base of this lion had to be light so I could create shadows on top of it easily. The first thing I focused on was creating the shape of the eyes to be able to detail them a lot. I believe that when painting animals, the eyes are the most important part when it comes to creating emotions.

Once I had the yellowish base done, it became very easy to create depth in the lion since I only need to put darker tones of yellow on top of the original color. This part of my work was somewhat difficult at times since the new tones did not always turn out exactly as I expected nor wanted so they looked strange. This setback only happened in the lion below because by the time I started the upper lion I had already learned that I should use the original color as much as possible and not allow any of the tones to dry quickly.

When I finished creating depth in the lion's eyes by adding shadows, I dedicated myself to the use of lighter colors so that the shadows and lights on the fur where better defined. One of the main problems I had throughout the work was that my brushes were not small enough to paint hair by hair. Despite this, I adapted to my problem and managed to create the texture with brush strokes that were directed in different ways. These strokes helped with the texture and expression of the lion since they gave the hair movement. It took a long time to define these shadows since I changed shades until I found the one I liked most.

Finally, I defined the mouth by putting whiter colors and creating the shape of the hairs on the chin with a square brush. This helped create the illusion that each small hair was done individually instead of several thicker brush strokes.

This exact process was repeated with the lion above because at this moment I already knew what to do. In the end, I decided to use a darker shade of gray from the one used in the background found in the upper left corner for the place where the lion below is laying on.

My critical research helped me a lot to be able to define what I wanted to accomplish in the painting. By investigating about certain artists as well as experimenting with different techniques in my sketches and trials such as graphite, watercolors, acrylic and colored `pencils I was able to come to the conclusion of using acrylic paints along with thin, round and square brushes as a medium. My support was a canvas made of cloth on a wooden base so that the paint was properly absorbed to create a more realistic effect. The main artists I was inspired by were Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, Franz Marc, Farid Rueda and Nick Sider. These artists paint(ed) animals during their careers. This influenced my creative process since I liked the visual communication that their work provides. What this artists aim to show is how animals can be represented in different ways in order to express different things. Some of them are so realistic they look like photographs but all of them help the viewer understand the animal, something I believe to have achieved in my painting.

Overall, I managed to fulfill my goal of developing and improving my ability to paint fur. In my personal opinion, I managed to create depth within the lions, which created a good visual balance in my work. Thanks to this balance, it was easier to create the texture of the lions and the movement of their hair, making the final product easy to understand. Although there were some somewhat difficult moments in my creation process, these difficulties helped me improve. In the end, I showed a great advance in the way I use the acrylic paint technique and I really liked how my work finally turned out.