Finishing what I started part 2

Did some more work on my whale painting recently. I had been struggling with how I wanted the baby to look. When I get an idea for a painting, I have a tendency to come up with different ways I can do it. I am the kind of person who likes to think things through before I do them and as much as I hate to admit this, I know I can be indecisive at times because of that! They may all seem like they are the best choice but it comes to the point that I have to tell myself, “Just pick one, Mark, and go with it!” I can always do another painting using the other ideas at a later date. My problem is that I hate to make mistakes, but more often than not that is how I learn! I need to stop trying to make everything perfect!

At first I was going to have the baby jumping out of the water, but then I thought, how many times have you seen that in Humpback whale paintings? Not that that is a bad thing, for this piece I went with the baby just breaking the surface of the water. I felt it would look better in relationship to the mother below it. 

This is the rough sketch I did for the painting. As you can see, I had a couple of different ideas for the baby.

Down the road I will do a painting with a whale leaping, it is what Humpbacks love to do. It is pretty awesome to see, not that I have seen it in person yet. Of all my trips to Hawaii, the most I have experienced is a whale slapping its flipper on the surface about a mile off shore and the back of one just coming out of the water while on a snorkel cruise. Hopefully the next time I go I will see a whale breaching. My ultimate dream is to some day actually swim with whales. I guess I need to put that on my bucket list!

My dad made a wood carving of a Humpback whale back in the 90's and I have been using it for the different poses of the whales for this piece. It has been a big help to me to look at it from different angles, giving me ideas for more paintings. 

Once I settled on the pose of the baby, it was time to transfer the tracing to the painting. And guess what? I applied a graphite smug to the piece. This time I was able to get it off with out any problems. Have you ever tried so hard to be careful not to screw up and then take a step back and say, “How in the hell did I do that?!” I even had a couple of sheets of paper laid down just so I wouldn't have that problem again. This time instead of an eraser, I used my finger with some water and it came right off. My goal was not to do a lot of work on the baby, just get some basic color and shading down, and then once it dried I will come back and do more later. 

I did a little tweaking on the mother’s tail also. The shape of it did not look right to me, mister perfectionist again! I added a shadow on top of her also, to connect the two together. Otherwise the baby looks like it is farther behind, instead of right above the mother, which is how I want it to look. I am stoked about how everything is coming along with the painting so far. More to do though!