Influences for my Self-directed Project
Alan M Hunt
Alan M Hunt is a wildlife artist who focuses on animals when in their natural habitat. Throughout his 50 years of painting career, Hunt has travelled around the world from Africa to Antarctica capturing the wildlife's true personalities. Out of the range of animals Hunt paints, he mainly focuses on Lions due to their symbol of great power and strength. An example of his work is 'I'm Here' which is a large oil painting close up of a Lions head.
I particularly liked Hunt's work due to the realistic features and great detail portrayed within his paintings. By capturing the animals personalities, i can get a feel of the animals power and worth. Also, as Hunt's work ranges from close up portraits to full bodied painting within their natural habitats I am able to get a feel of the true beauty and personalities of the wild animals.
Sue Warner
Sue Warner is a professional illustrator and graphic artist who specialises in animal portraits. From her Biography she states: "It's the perfect way to remember the pets we love". By being able to capture the animals spirit as well as its realistic physical appearance.
With the initial idea to use my dog as the main subject within my painting, Warner was a good influence to base my project off, or to at least begin with. I like how within her work she add great detail ensuring each individual hair is in its correct place in order to create the true character of the animal. With the simplified background tending to be only one colour, the focus is entirely on the animal portrayed, enhancing the smaller details such as the fur.
Andrew Hutchinson
Andrew Hutchinson is also a wildlife artist whose ambition it was to bring his attention to the world surrounding him. By receiving wards at 2014 as well as 2015 expeditions, Hutchinson has recently been made a member of the Royal Society of miniature artists. Using acrylic paint on board his materials appealed to me leading to the reason I used Hutchinson as an influence towards my project.
All of Hutchinson's work has personality and movement within the natural environment which creates a different finish when compared to Hunt and Warner's work. When looking at 'Black Labrador Pup' by Hutchinson, you could see the mischievous personality of the puppy coming across which I loved. Hutchinson's work took on a range of angles from behind, in front or up close to the animals which creating different aspects to his paintings, allowing them to stand out from others.
Mark Farnington
Mark Farnington had an award winning expedition in the Baltic, Gateshead called 'A Duck For Mr Darwin' which focused mainly on the face of the animal particularly the eyes rather than the entire body, face or landscape. By using a very fine paintbrush Farnington used small individual strands in order to create a realistic and detailed effect.
When looking further into Farnington's work the eyes did not contain just a reflection but the landscape of which the animal was in. Giving me an idea of how the animal loved and its nature. I liked how by focusing only on the eye I was able to feel a sort of connection with the animal painted, feeling its emotion. Farnington. Using the idea of the eye level of the animal being centralised as my inspiration form Farnington hope to achieve emotion coming across from my painting.
