Koala, work in progress. Scratchboard, 14 x 11 in. Copyright 2008, Tania Nault.
As you can see, I decided to add another branch to balance the composition and give my poor Koala a place to sit. Did you know that Koalas have extra plush fur on their bums to cushion them because they spend almost 20 hours per day sleeping wedged into the crooks of tree branches! Isn’t evolution amazing? I’ve also added some leaves to the Eucalyptus tree as well, and may add a couple other sprigs over the weekend.
Okay, maybe not a thousand words, but it’s worth at least 650… today anyway. Last week I mentioned I’d like to talk briefly about a problem I had with the reference photo I used for my Koala board.
Koala, work in progress. Scratchboard, 14 x 11 in. Copyright 2008, Tania Nault.
One of the great things about being a wildlife artist is the amazing diversity or the animal kingdom. It’s also one of the worst things. Why do I say this? Well, I live in North America, on the northern edge of the Great Plains to be exact. I could spend every moment of every day outside my home and I’d never see a Koala. Now, take my friend Patrick: he lives in Australia. Recently he posted a photo (on WetCanvas! in the Scratchboard forum) of a Koala he and his son had stumbled across (almost literally) along the side of their hiking trail. Lucky Patrick. But Patrick could spend every minute of every day outside his home and he’d never see say… a cougar.
And so what do you do, a wildlife artist in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada who suddenly gets a hankering to make scratchboard art of a Koala? Well, you have a two options:
1.) go somewhere and take your own photos of a Koala
2.) find photos of a Koala and use those (Do I really have to mention that these photos should either be in a forum that allows artists to use them, i.e. morguefile.com or the WetCanvas! Reference Image Library, or that you have to ask the photographers permission to use his/her photos, do I? Really, do I? Well, you do.)
Let’s look at the first option: we’ll assume you’re like every other starving artist and a quick jaunt to Australia is a bit outside your budget this year. We’ll look a little closer to home: zoos. A quick google search shows us that there are currently no Koalas in Canadian zoos. Apparently, the Toronto Zoo has occasionally had Koalas on loan from other zoos, but it doesn’t look like there are any there now. There are several zoos in the United States with Koalas, most notably, the San Diego Zoo, and while that’s considerably closer to Regina than Australia, it’s still farther than you can justify travelling for photos of a Koala. Yes, even for a marsupial that cute. So you peruse the choices on your favourite reference photo websites and find what you’re looking for: cute Koala in a tree. (Actually, I found two photos of the same Koala, one with a nice head placement and the other with a full body.) You make several sketches based on the photos and start work on your board.
But… while you’re researching Koala eating habits (as luck would have it Eucalyptus trees are not native to Canada) you discover that, despite what you can see in your photographic references, Koalas have five digits (not four) on each of their front and hind paws. I’m not sure how you feel about this, but I think it’s a fairly significant difference for the Koala. Also, on the front paws the first and second digits are opposable to the other three, like two thumbs, and all digits on the front paws have claws. On the hind paws the first digit is opposable to the other four, doesn’t have a claw, and the second and third digits are fused throughout the joints, but end with two claws.
So what have you learned? In addition to the usual warnings artists get about using photographs as references for artwork: photos tend to distort light, shadow, colours, perspective, etc. you’re reminded that photographs, no matter how cute, may be missing vital information. And it’s your responsibility as a wildlife artist to try and learn as much as you can about your subjects because that will help you make better art.
Koala, work in progress. Scratchboard, 14 x 11 in. Copyright 2008, Tania Nault.
I’ve set aside my Polar Bear and put off colouring my chipmunk for the night to engage in some “productive procrastination.” I’m having some second thoughts about the background on the Polar Bear and because I prefer doing my colour work during the daylight hours I decided to start a new board. (I think this makes four I have on the go right now?) The photo is quite wretched - artificial lighting and too much glare from the overhead lights, but the board itself is a good start. Here’s a close up of the little guy’s face:
Isn’t he cute? The fur texture is quite different from what I’m used to: it looks somehow fuzzy yet prickly at the same time. And although the reference photo (from WetCanvas! by a member named “colliedog”) doesn’t have a catchlight in the koala’s right eye (on our left) I think I’m going to add one, it seems slightly off without it. Also, I’m using two different photos for this one: one for the head and another for the body, it’s something I do fairly frequently for pet portraits. My plan is to have this one in RFA show at the end of March.
