This started with a photo in a National Geographic newsletter by Otto Plantema, Buiten Beeld, Minden Pictures. There were also two birds perched behind his second horn. One had a red beak that would've been a neat point of interest for the painting but their feathers almost blended into the Rhino's skin. I figured I had enough to deal with and so simplified.
I was too timid to draw on the sketchbook page, which I know is stupid because it's a sketchbook, so I drew on a separate piece of paper, rubbed some pastel on the back, then transferred it to the book. In my defense, It's a bound sketchbook by Pentalic filled with heavy watercolor paper. Still, I know it was silly. Maybe next time.
This time, I did a little pre-painting prep. The day before, I sealed the paper with Acryla gouache which is gouache that uses an acryilic binder instead of gum arabic. A layer of regular gouache can be activated with water, allowing for blending after the fact. It can also muddy the color of the layers you paint on top of it if you're not careful. Acryla gouache dries like acrylic paint. Once it's dried, it's done. I bought a tube of white, blue, yellow and red to mix an approximation of anything I need out of those. I just added random color shapes to five pages with no idea of what I'll eventually paint on them. Ultimately, the color was covered by my opaque paint but I did start off with lighter washes so maybe there's a little glow left. But by coating the paper, it didn't suck up the paint as fast as the raw pages did. This made the actual painting process better.
Here's where I stopped the first day. Why did I stop? Maybe I thought it was going well and I didn't want to mess it up. Maybe I just lost energy. I will say that I had returned to it in the evening and the lights in my office weren't bright enough to light my paper. For my birthday, I'm getting an LED light with an adjustable temperature setting that will definitely allow for night painting. Of course, I hope to actually paint outside again. Then again, there are no rhinos in my backyard.
You can see the warm glow behind the horns which is the underpainting showing through. Maybe there's more warmth to the face because of it. After I get through the random pages, I'll try to use it more thoughtfully. The rhino was standing in grass in the original photo, more straw colored than what I suggested here. I knew I'd be blurring this or changing it completely so I moved on.
I blocked in the main colors but the body could've used more variation. In the previous painting, I got the bark texture by random strokes and dry brush. I was thinking I should do the same here. If I had a painted page of gray to experiment on, I might've. Instead, I started adding details to give me some anchor points. It's a lack of confidence move for me. "If I can make the nostril work, I'll just move across the whole painting." Not the best logic. After that, I called it a day.
I ended up going with a darker background. I added some tall grass in the foreground for depth but had to tone them way down as they were the brightest objects on the painting. I used pastel pencils to add some color variation to the rhino's body. There are a hundred things to be picky about but overall, I'm happy with this. It was an enjoyable process and if I can paint a few more like this, my confidence will be in great shape to tackle painting outdoors, possibly in front of people... if they ever let us out again.
On the other hand, I really like the ear closest to us. The light and shadow are working great to give an illusion of light. Plus the underpainting is showing through in interesting ways. It shows there are goals I want to reach that are attainable. - Tad
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