anything but a few leeting glimpses of
wildlife. When I spotted this elephant, it
became a thrill that not even seeing more
than a hundred in my line of vision in
Botswana could beat, simply because I had
worked so hard for it.
However, this particular photo would
make for spectacularly bad art if I used it, so
in order to follow my dream of wildlife art,
sometimes I have to put my ego aside and go
with the best references, no matter how much
or how little work it took to get them.
The reference for my yawning mandrill
which I titled “The Big Challenge” came
from a trip to my local zoo. I had to go
through almost no work at all to get good
references since he performed for me every
time I went there. I doubt that the mandrill
is much of a fan of me, since he yawned
this massive open-mouthed yawn three or
four times, every time I saw him. However,
despite the lack of achievement in getting
good references for him, he certainly made
it fun to paint him.
Sometimes it’s good to have a plan in
mind when you are collecting references.
I’ve become reasonably well-known for
some of my montages, nine images framed
together, and this has been helpful in that
it gives me direction. The mandrill yawning
has given me an idea to create a montage
of various animals with their mouths
wide open in either a yawn, genuinely
challenging someone or they may simply
be basking with their mouths agape. The
point is to have a plan.
Using those references that you’ve
worked so hard to get
On occasion I may turn the cofers over
with a pet portrait or two. To me, if a client
is going to shell out their hard-earned cash
on a portrait of their pet, they deserve
to have my heart and soul put into the
art. Here I may say some things that are
controversial but I really mean them.
Firstly, I must please myself irst and
foremost in my art. If I don’t relate to the
subject matter, it’s impossible for me to
put my “heart and soul” into it. I must
be passionate about it so that my client
gets the absolute best from me. If I’m not
passionate about something, I won’t accept
the commission – it’s not worth it for the
client and it’s not worth it for my own
artistic expression.Secondly, I like to get the references
myself. I will go to the client’s house to
meet and get photos of their animals
myself. This way I can get some kind of
connection, which usually means I can be
emotionally invested in the work. If their
animal is deceased, I will look through
the photos that they’ve got and hopefully
they might have something that I can work
from. However, for some reason some
clients seem to want their deceased animal
immortalised in art, yet when the animal
was alive, all they took were a few tiny,
grainy photos that are impossible to get
a good likeness from. If this is the case,
as harsh as it may be to say this, I won’t
accept the commission.
If you can take photos of a client’s pets
yourself, take as many pictures as youTools
Pet reference photographs
artists (^69)