This project is another animal painting, which are one of my favorite projects to do. This time I decided to paint a lion, as I was free to paint anything I wanted since this was a free project. however I wanted to do something slightly different to switch it up slightly. To add a little extra flavor to my project I blended my painting with this being the final result.
Here is the original image which I found online, through Unsplash. All credit to this photo goes to Mike van den Bos. I chose this image specifically because it was pretty high quality and almost offered a unique side-profile of the lion creating an interesting and the background was simple yet unique.
Here as you can see I made a little progress. I started off with the face as I felt like the shorter strands of hair although more detailed in color, would be easier to paint with a brush and keep the hair look than the longer strands. I used Kyle T Webster impressionist brushes here, a brush that I have some experience from usage in prior projects. As you can see from these the brush sampling slightly alters from the original fur color of the lion. At first I thought this was going to be a problem but I later figured that the colors didn't diverge to far from the original color and actually gave the lion's fur color a bit of a more unique yet realistic look.
In this next step I progressed a little further on the face before switching my attention the upper part of the mane and some of the fur strands running close to the face. I didn't take me too long to do on the upper mane and I feel like the orange coloration went really well, the only potential problem I saw my self encountering was near the far top the hair is far thinner and harder to portray with a brush. As for the long fur near the face I feel like it was turning out alright, but it was kind of hard to tell since I wasn't truly finished with the all the painting yet.
Here is the extant of my painting prior to using the blend tool. I feel like I portrayed the top of the mane, the front of the face, and the lower part of the body very well. I was really satisfied with the way I was able to get the whiskers, as I was worried I wouldn't be able to portray the, yet I was luckily. However, personally critiquing my self I would say that there was perhaps a little too much brown and dark red on the side of the face, which kind of throws it off just a little. However this would soon be fixed with my blending.
Here is the result after the blend, I still used the Kyle T. Webster brush, which luckily came along with a few blending brushes. I feel like it cleared up some of the problems I had with their being a little too much brown, however I also feel like it gave the lion a fluffier look, but also a unique art look, which was what I was going for. I also took some time here to a little time here to paint some of the leaves in the background, to make it look like an actual background rather than just a plain black background. This really worked out and made the entire scene look like a unique art piece where a lion is creeping around in the darkness of a jungle.
Here you can see the standard side by side with two other variations I created by just changing the eye color, which I feel like changes one's perception of the lion. The red eyes variation is supposed to make the viewer see an aggressive/evil lion and changes the entire odd of the scene, which was originally neutral. The yellow-eyed variation somewhat covers the same theme as the red eyed, but it also carries an element of fantasy/magic to it, which along with the dark forest, is meant to create a sense of mystery and wonder to the scene.
Here for my first mockup I went with a book design. I made the side cover brown to add slight contrast but still keep within the general theme of the colors and I went with gold text as matched the eye color and also fit the theme. This book if I was to choose would most likely be some sort of fantasy type novel, thus I came up with the title "Into the Nightmare Depth." The dark background and lion are something someone would probably see in their nightmare thus fi
For this mockup I used a framed painting, as I feel like this painting would also be a great poster/framed piece of art. It wouldn't likely be in your home. but it would be a good painting to be in art show/art museum. It would especially be ideal for an art show that has a specific theme, like animals or nature for an example.
For this mockup I went with another type of poster, this time a larger poster and one that is more locked to a certain setting. My lion painting would be ideal for certain kinds of advertisement poster such as this one which is for an art museum showcase. An art showcase that is going for a theme like nature or wildlife, this would be ideal since it is showcasing various forms of wildlife (the lion and the leaves) and it also giving the potential attendee a look into the different types and variety of art that could be expected to be seen at the show.
This mockup is supposed to be like a mural in a setting like a train station for example or even in just a common social place like a mall or type of shopping center, better yet I think a gym would be the best place for this type of mural/wall art. A lion is typically known for its fierceness, strength, and dominance so that's why I added the motivational text. This may not be the ideal art in every type of place, but I think it definitely looks very cool and definitely has potential.
