sos lynx

oil on 18x24 canvas panel. a campaign support piece i made to promote awareness on the critically endangered lynx and the sos lynx conservation in portugal. the original plan for this painting was to make it on a 22x26 panel but at the last second i changed my mind thinking that a large portrait style of an iberian lynx is too much. at that time i was thinking that large canvases would be much better if it was filled with at least 40% background scenery. this lynx project of mine has approximately 20% of the background showing so a smaller and narrow vertical canvas would be a better choice.

using the same ivory black paint from the "watching you" painting i start by blocking in the dark parts of the lynx. its a little funny when i do this part because with all the pencil details i make. it sometimes gets confusing on where to put in the dark blocks and more that one occasion getting frustrated at myself because i forgot what some of the pencil markings meant. but usually after figuring this part out its so much easier to fill in the rest of the colors.

painting the background first before the subject just to get out of my routine of starting a painting with the eyes. in the background i tried to create the impression of a sunny close up grassland. i didnt put in much detail here to balance the painting out because the lynx was already heavily detailed.

doing the color test starting with the mommy lynx's ear then going down and across the head. i used lots of mixes between lemon yellow, naples yellow hue, raw sienna, raw umber, payne's gray and titanium white. there are also some blue hued glazing in some parts.

painting the lynx cub's tongue and eyes last. this painting took thrice the time for me to finish. this probably is the longest time it took me to make a painting. there were lots of distractions and other prior commitments hopefully the next one will be a smooth sailing one.