Snow Hare painting, memories of Scandavia

I finally sat at my easel today, for the first time in months. And set to work on a painting of a snow hare based on this sketch I drew in Stockholm at the Natural History Museum. I spent a great day sketching there, although I recall at the end of the day having to wait 12 minutes for the bus, and learning just how cold you get standing still for 12 minutes in minus 14 degrees Celsius, even though I was completely bundled up.

 

Some time back I had roughly drawn the outline on some acrylic paper, and painted the foreground in what I thought would be a nice contrast, using bold red. 

At my first major pause from painting today, walking away for a while, I took another look and all I could see was a hare bleeding everywhere! The red had to go, and the feet definitely needed more work.

 

Much happier with the cooler foreground. Overall I'm fairly pleased with how it's coming along, certainly it still needs more work, mostly around the feet, the foreground, and more definition around the snout. I'm really pleased with the colourings in the fur, and the eyes though.

 



At one point today I knocked the Reindeer pelt off my painting stool - what, doesn't everyone have Reindeer pelt at home? This is a much loved souvenir of our first visit to Helsinki, and our first sightings of real reindeer trotting around in snow. I've really fallen for them, they are awkward, gangly, and the little ones struggle to co-ordinate such enormously long legs (being a klutz who can trip over a shadow, perhaps I relate). They always remind me of one of those toys where you press the base and the animal collapses, their real legs seem as unstable as these toys. Anyway - I've digressed slightly there.

 

What I noticed today that made me smile, and is so reminiscent of Finnish advertising (or I suppose IKEA instructions), was this sticker on the bottom of the pelt. 'what is this for? it is for sitting on!'

 



Have a good weekend!