DJ Geribo

Working on three paintings at the same time feels just about right. That way, while one is drying I can work on the next one and while that one is drying and the first isn't quite ready to be worked on again, I have a third one to paint.

My third painting is an Elephant - for some reason, unknown to me, I have a strong feeling for Elephants and Gorillas. Maybe because they are both very intelligent. Elephants mourn their dead which shows feelings - something humans typically don't believe animals have. When we as a species compare ourselves to animals in our limited thinking we believe everything should behave like us, or it isn't intelligent. Well, I have yet to see a human who can detect when an epileptic is going to have a seizure. Or can predict when an earthquake or other devastating event, like a tsunami, is going to take place (animals will run to higher ground). And who doesn't know about the intelligence of Gorillas - again, comparing them to us, look, they can learn sign language! Funny how limited we are in measuring intelligence, only by what we believe to be intelligent. But animals, as I've read again and again, are superior to us in sensing danger, smelling out bombs, finding dead in disaster areas, and countless other ways that we cannot fathom and have very limited knowlege of.

But I digress - this is sounding more like a blog for my other website: www.eyehelpanimals.com !

I was having some trouble with this one because although I already painted it in a 5"x7" size, blowing it up to 30"x40" size shows more detail and I just don't have it in the reference photo I used, which was taken several years ago. I am far along on this one but am still working out the legs/shadow area under the elephant. I tried putting in what I thought they would look like and I didn't like it so I went back to more shadows but I still need to figure out the stance and where his legs should be place. I realize it is harder to work that out once you are into a painting but I thought I did have it worked out until I started working on the individual parts of his body. Right now he is drying so I'll be back to this next week.