Hello my nature lovers, welcome to my first blog post and a peek into my personal painting process! I'm very excited to be able to share some of the successes and struggles I face during these longer paintings. I'll be walking us through my newest painting of Kodiak bears, inspired by my family. 

This Kodiak bear illustration was actually started about 8 months ago, and the ideation and thumbnailing process months before that. Starting off, I wanted to do some quick thumbnails to figure the composition out. I went into this image knowing I wanted a mother bear and her family, somewhere in the foggy lakes of Kodiak Island, Alaska. The Kodiak bears are a slightly larger subspecies of the Grizzly found on this specific island, and share many of the key features, like the large 'hump' of their scapula and 'mane' of hair on their huge necks.

Above is the basic process I use to figure out a composition. After thumbnailing, I usually wait a few days before looking at the compositions again to find a solution. In this case, I loved the adorable fishing cubs in the top right thumbnail, but I wanted to use the mother as a big foreground element to bring the audience to be a part of the cute scene. I knew for sure I wanted to feature the gorgeous mountains in the far background, and the foggy forest to set the scene.

From here, we move to a sketchy version of the composition I discovered. I loved the forest surrounding the head of the mother bear as a framing device, but the implied lines of the forest and rocks pointing right to the adorable cubs. I did not want a complicated background to distract from the subject, so I moved to value to figure out how to solve that problem, as well as enlarging the cubs in the composition since they were a bit small.

One more detailed drawing and some compositional fixes later, we come to the value painting. I use a monotone palette that will be under the painting, to bring warmth to an otherwise cool scene. In this stage, I am simply trying to find where the values are in order to convey that overcast day.

The first pass of local color applied following my sketch and the values I figured out. I worked on this painting in the traditional oil style, trying to replicate that feeling with digital color and brushwork. I work directly over the value painting, from background to foreground, increasing contrast and saturation as we come forward in the scene.

Another pass of rendering, and we arrive here. Now, this painting has a unique story, as this is where the painting sat for about 5 months before I looked at it again. I was not happy with the mother bear or the choppiness of the cub's fur, and with other paintings to look forward to, I nearly quit this one entirely. Those months gave me fresh eyes on the painting, and with a few fixes, I knew I could put my stamp of approval on this bear family.

Above is the final painting. First of all, I decided to vary the brushwork more in order for it to feel more natural. I extended the canvas slightly, (a perk of digital painting), changed the background a bit, and added movement to the mother bear's pose. One more rendering pass softened the cubs, added darker values to the foreground, and lightened up those foggy Alaskan mountains in the back.

I thank you for walking through this painting with me and these adorable cubs. If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me here on my website, I love to talk about painting and all forms of art.

Happy painting, and remember to love every mama bear in your life,

Casey L.