Simmental Bullock

Pastel on Clairefontaine Pastelmat, 19 x 13 inches

Another Bullock painting for this series of animal studies. The composition worked well on this upright sized format. I've said before that I don't like to see animal heads with a sharp cut-off on the neck, which make the painting look like a portrait of a severed head! It looks much better and less disturbing to fade the neck and body out to the edge of the painting surface.

The colours used for this portrait were predominantly based around the warm browns, oranges and yellows, similar to the Highland portrait. I liked the shaft of sunlight across the animal's left side of the face, and although there are a few white tufts of hair on the head, the only pure white used was on the side of the muzzle where the light caught it. All the other white parts were described with relatively darker tones of greys and blues; it's all about tones - never trust your brain that tells you there are white patches on the animal - look how the colours appear in relation to each other, that's by far the most important observation in order create a meaningul and convincing painting.