New Work

The final (pending minor tweaks... whendoIstopworkingonit?) Elephants General. Definitely the longest span of time I've left between starting and finishing a piece. Six months of downtime when I didn't touch it at all, though it was hanging in a show for two months back in June.

I feel like I needed the interwoven practice I got between when I set this aside and a week ago when I finished the watercolor part, in order to really do it properly. The scan didn't turn out fantastically, so when I have some money, I'm going to get it properly done by a fine art imaging studio. And because of that, it was 6 hours of digital work on top of the painting to bring the vibrancy and colors somewhat back to life. It seems to be my usual way of working, though I keep fighting the intermarriage of watercolor with digital overlay... despite being a huge fan of Justin Gerard's work in that very mode.

The model for our green-skinned potentate is the superb Natalie Paquette. The elephants belong only to themselves and nature photographers everywhere. The hands are mine, my mate's, and probably someone else's, too. ...So. Many. Hands.

The Elephants General