The Leopard
Capturing the leopard with her kill took time and perseverance.
First I select my subject: in this case, a leopard with her catch. I want to share my experience with those who have never been there. She was lying in the shade under the tree when we found her by luck. We could only see her tail wagging. We stopped and waited for about an hour. Other vehicles also stopped and after a while she was getting uneasy. She got up into the tree with her catch and then went down and disappeared into the bushland.
I paint from photographs as my subject matter is animals and unfortunately they will not stay still for very long and you have to photograph them while they are there at that moment, and you can’t always get the best light or shade or the right angel for photos.
STEP ONE
I use a projector to get the basic drawing on the paper. I know this is a frequently frowned upon method but it is important to get the shape accurate. I don’t put in a lot of detail in this stage – just enough to get the overall composition. I then transfer the sketch to my canvas with graphite transfer paper.
STEP TWO
Using a no 6 flat brush I do an underpainting with a sloppy mixture of paint and liquin, blocking out the main subject. Normally I would not leave the subject completely white. But I want to transfer the spots of the leopard later. I use liquin because it dries faster. I squeeze a selection of my chosen paint onto my palette and blend as required. I wait for it to dry then start to build the background up in thicker paint mixture of linseed oil and turps, developing the darks first.
STEP THREE
The oil paint is built up with multiple layers. I leave some brush marks in the background. I will go back to it at the end if I need to. I am starting to put in some dark areas on the branch in the foreground and transfer the spots of the leopard to the canvas and paint them in raw umber.
STEP FOUR
I finish the spots and go back to the background to use more green. I also paint light and darker areas on the impala.
STEP FIVE
I start to work on the detail on the branch with a smaller brush. Cracks and shadows are added with brush work. I use black in the very dark shades. I paint in all the shadow areas on the leopard’s body with a thin layer of burnt amber and white in the light areas. I use thin paint so that the spots can show through the paint. I will have to go back to the spots later to reinforce them after all the layers are added.
FINAL STEP
I keep on adding thin layers of paint; I also paint the rest of the body with lemon yellow and some parts white. Glazing is a save way to alter the painting in slow stages, rather than all at once. While I wait for the layers to dry I start to work on the impala. When I am satisfied with all the layers and shades I use a mixture of burnt amber and black and go over all the spots again. I use a fan brush to brush lightly over the spots in the direction the fur goes while the paint is still wet. I use more black in some of the spots than others. I also add the eye and whiskers at this stage. The background is too busy and distracts the viewer from the leopard so I go back and soften the brushstrokes out and make the background darker with just a stream of sunlight coming through the foliage. I then adjust the tone and colours all over to pull the painting together.i