DJ Geribo

I'm very excited about the progress I'm making with the current (3) projects I'm working on - 'Tiger, Tiger', 'Elephant Big Boy', and 'Fox Hunting'. I've spent the last couple of weeks working on the Elephant and the Fox and this is how the Elephant currently looks. I'm almost finished with him and I have just a little more to work on, such as his eyes and his tusks, and then I'm signing my name.

This has been a wonderful experience, painting large scale. I have 4 more 30x40 canvases and am lining up the next paintings I will be starting, probably in the next couple of weeks.

I will have the final Elephant Big Boy painting to share when I have completed the painting. Stay tuned!

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.

I decided that I needed to work on more than one painting at a time. With oils, you have to wait for the current layer to dry somewhat before you add more paint to it otherwise you will risk making mud on your canvas. I did a miniature painting of this particular fox composition(5"x7") that is for sale through my Daily Paintings - Animals gallery. I liked it so much I thought I would do a larger painting of it. Although not as big as my Tiger painting (18"x24") it is bigger than the miniature I did and I think it will be a better composition in a larger size.

I'm finding the best way to fill in the canvas is by adding more paint, lots of paint! I'm fairly stingy with paint which is part of the reason I like painting small. I put just a dab of paint out for each color that I use and it lasts for several paintings. Not so with large-scale pieces, I am going through the paint like crazy and I've had to put a shopping list together of the colors I need to replace.

I'm moving right along on my tiger painting, really enjoying the large scale work. I didn't realize I would enjoy this so much. For the longest time I just avoided large scale and would continue to return to the security of my miniature paintings. In 2009 I started an 18"x36" which was the largest painting I had ever painted. I finally finished, but it took several months. I didn't have my David Sorg easel then so it wasn't easy working on it using my Julian Sketchbox easel. Some of it I actually just leaned the canvas up against a wall and sat on the floor to paint.