Thursday, February 23, 2012

Bacon and Eggs

Here is a little project that I am working on, this is a huge iron looking skillet, and the person I am painting this for wanted bacon and eggs....  what do ya think?

Tami Booher, Appalachian Nature Painter: Eastern Kentucky Elk

Tami Booher, Appalachian Nature Painter: Eastern Kentucky Elk: Next layer added on and now I am thinking that I would like to get some softer pastels to complete this painting. :) O that means I have t...

Friday, February 17, 2012

Eastern Kentucky Elk

Next layer added on and now I am thinking that I would like to get some softer pastels to complete this painting.  :) O that means I have to go shopping!!! 









The Elk was introduced back into Eastern Kentucky in 1997, this handsome fella had his photo taken in Knott county by Kentucky Photographer Michael Smith. Michael has graciously allowed me to use his photo for a reference so that I can do this painting.
I will be using the alphacolor pastels on a 9"x12" 600 grit Ampersand sanded pastel paper.
Here I have sketched this guy on the pastel paper.

Here is a little back ground on this majestic animal.
Elk once roamed the hills of Kentucky but by the mid 1850’s, none were to be found. In a true partnership effort, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Shikar Safari Club joined forces to bring this magnificent creature back to Kentucky. An aggressive elk re-establishment program ensued. From 1997 to 2002, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife released a total of 1,556 elk that originated from Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, and Utah. Over 100 animals were released at 8 suitable sites in a 16-county elk zone. In 2009, the herd reached the project goal of 10,000 elk.
 Here I have laid in the first layers in the background. I have also worked on laying in the dark areas of the elk.





After working on him a little more, I sprayed to set my first layers of pastel. As you can see it darkens and leaves some spotty areas but that is okay, I now have more tooth to work with and will be covering all of the spotty areas anyway.


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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Working in pastel

I have decided that I need to pick up the pastels again and work on becoming a better painter in them. I purchased my first box of pastels in years.  They are student grade Alphacolor and I have to say that I am enjoying them. I am using the Ampersand 600 grit pastel paper, I have the perfect model in my beautiful April. In the first photo is the first initial layer of pastel, I then sprayed it to set, so that I could lay in the next layer, the next two photos are actually of the same layer, one is with a flash and the other without. I prefer the one without the flash as I feel it is truer to the actual painting..