Panda 1 - Part 3 - Making Panda 1

Welcome back!

So far we have learned the style of Franz Marc, and done some practicing, now it's time to put my money where my mouth is, or however that saying goes.

First thing's first: I have been pondering the title and I have decided to take the inspiration all the way -- naming my artwork as the artist I am inspired by may have named it. Franz Marc likes simple and descriptive titles. Since this piece is most reminiscent of Two Cats. Blue and Yellow I have decided to aptly title this painting: Two Pandas. Blue and Yellow.

One other quick order of business before I scurry off and share my process. The first weekend of March I decided to play with some Alcohol inks (I will find a way to talk about this process more somewhere in here) and I created this super cool panda image that was in a dream I had. So now Manda's Pandas has an official image. I want to do a larger scale alcohol ink experiment and make a really cool panda painting with it, I will add it to the list.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Two Pandas. Blue and Yellow.

I had a preliminary sketch from before I really understood Marc and his techniques and inspiration which basically went out the window. I still wanted the same pandas, in a playful style, and I wanted bamboo as a prominent background feature, but I also envisioned a meaningful and colorful background with a lot of variation and shapes.

Preliminary Sketch: Two Pandas B&Y

Features of Two Pandas: 

1. Two playful pandas in the foreground. One blue, larger one more dominant, and the yellow being more playful-emulating the concept of Marc's Color theory 
2. Prominent bamboo featured. I find bamboo to be one of the most beautiful plants. It is unique in how it grows, and it feeds pandas so pretty important stuff to include. 
3. The ball on the left. This is a nod to the ball in Two Cats. It is one of my favorite features, but I didn't want to make it the same colors, so went with my favorite of his color transitions the orange/red/yellow with insane blue and black shadows. 
4. The sky! I wanted to emulate the sky in  Big Blue Horses so I gave myself plenty of sky to play with and planned a gradient of sunset sky. 
5. I wanted hills, because hills and mountains are in many of his works and they're realistic to where a panda would be from, so there's that. 
6. There are some purple stones toward the bottom right, hidden among them is an orange panda head because often times Marc hid shapes of the animals he is painting within the background. 
7. There is a river flowing through the middle to add some softness to the landscape.
8. Lastly the Ancient Chinese Building. Architecture makes its appearance in many of Marc's works and I had a big space I wasn't sure what to do with. Ben suggested adding some kind of architecture since that was on my list of favorite features in Marc's art, and so was born this image (art is a community effort.) 

Thumbnails, sketches, painted sketches, final--that's the order of operations apparently, so the next step was a painted sketch.

I followed the same steps I did with Cats: light sketch, base layer of colors, then continue developing each shape until it resembled what I had in mind.

Painted Sketch: 

First I transferred my sketch to the canvas board (by sight... using a blue pencil) 

This is an artsy fartsy pic of my palate! HAHA and my colors, and my paintbrushes ... READY TO GO!

This is partway through. This is just my base layer. This gives you an idea of where I go with the process. first getting the ground colors in and then I go back in and work each area bringing it to it's full potential. 

Two Pandas. Blue and Yellow - Painted sketch. 

Here she is! <3 <3 <3 

Final thoughts: 

1. I can't wait to get this on a canvas. I really love the image and enjoyed painting it... I am sad to know I am going to only paint this one more time before moving on to my next style, but I am really proud of how it turned out and am excited to share it with people on a larger scale.
2. This was intimidating. Not going to lie. I psyched myself out several times in the middle of it and I am still struggling to believe that I really got it to look the way it was in my head. 
3. I am still deciding if there are more tweaks to make... I think this is going to be it though... we'll see! HAHA

So, Stay tuned. 

My plans for the final piece and final blog post on it involves a speed painting video explaining my process and showing every step as I go, as well as my regular pictures and update. 

Thank you, again, for all of your love and support. 

I am filled with so much gratitude for you and love for this project. 

Go out and try something new! 

<3

'Manda