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| Isn't he magnificent?? You can understand why they were revered and worshipped long ago. I think this is one of the Spanish wild bovine breeds. There are several groups in Europe that are "back-breeding" to re-create some of the older breeds of animals. They were actually better suited and more fit to survive in their environment. The concepts of back-breeding and re-wilding are fascinating to me. I wanted to create an homage to this magnificent animal. My idea was to have him roaring out of the cave, with images of his ancestors behind him - sort of symbolically showing his return. |
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| This is a photo of a skeleton in one of the German natural history museums. I used the shape to create my image. |
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| First tentative washes, with burnt orange and an indanthrone/pink mixture. |
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| Getting into the blacks - pink, orange and indanthrone. |
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| Gradually building up shadows defining musculature and indicating light source. |
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| Starting a scrumbled background with aureolin, pink, burnt orange and indanthrone. |
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| Finally gently spraying the entire paper, and dropping in black and letting it flow. |
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| Darken one side of the face and neck, and add [by direct painting and lifting] some prehistoric graffiti on the wall behind him. My critique ... the bull does not look massive and impressive enough. Perhaps a different format? Also, having the bull emerging from the cave-like background would have been more readily accomplished using a lifting technique. Ah well, live and learn. Thank you all for dropping by! |
