Heather Bruton

Step by Step of Heather's Work
It's always fun to see a painting bloom. Usually, it's only the artist who gets to see it. But everyonce in a while, we try to document things so we can share them. Here are the steps involved in several paintings.

Heather text goes here.
This painting was done soon after I returned from a 2007 trip to Kenya and Tanzania. I've always dreamed of going on safari and this trip was everything I'd dreamed of and more. I knew I wanted to a do a painting of zebras as they're one of my favourite animals and I'd seen so many. In the late afternoon, zebras pair up in great herds, their heads resting on each other's back. It was an arresting image. I carefully picked out a photo to base my painting on.

This is the pencil sketch. Sorry for the glard but many of these shots were taken with a digtial camera and often the shots are not the best. As you can see I've done a pretty detailed sketch and mapped out all the strips carefully.

When painting backgrounds, especially with such a large painting, I don't want to worry about painting over my main figures. So, I carefully mask out the main figures with frisket before applying any paint. Once I have painted in the full background with lots of messy, big strokes, I wait for it to dry and then pull up the frisket. The frisket has been remvoed in this shot. I always have to remind myself to keep the backgrounds simple when working this style. I do not want the background to be too tightly rendered and make the foreground and background too flat.

A close up of the first level of paint for the first zebra. I usually work pretty loosely with thin paint with a rather watercolour technique.

Here the head has been more fully rendered and I've loosely painted the rump area. The mostly finished head has plenty of layers of paint on it, working more and more opaquely as I've added more and more detail. I also work with smaller and smaller brushes as I've gotten closer to finished.

The first zebra is 99% finished. I will go back and check things when I finish the other animal to make sure that shadows match up and everything harmonizes together.

This looks pretty cool as I've shaded in the white areas and the black stripes are dead white. Makes for an intersting contrast.

Stripes have been roughted in only and white areas shaded only roughly. Starting to see the end of the tunnel! When roughing in areas like the stripes, I'm only getting the areas filled in and getting the dreaded white all covered up. This allows me to get a feel for how the final is going to look..

Here's the final. All the highlights are added in and I've laid in a green reflected wash over the bellies to ground the zebras more fully in the picture.

My favourite horse painting. This one just all sort of fell together and it practically painted itself. Lots of layers of acrylic paint, starting using a watercolour techinique and working more opaquely as I got further and further into the painting.

In this pic I wanted to play with painting on a matt board. This means that I have a mid tone already settled and can work up and down in tones from there. It makes for painting using a different technique then my usual acrylics. In the first picture I've sketched the animal onto the board and started to paint in the rock background. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see where I'm just starting to rough in the rocks while the higher up ones are mostly completed. If you look closely you can see the penciled in snow leopared.

Rock wall and front rocks completed and the rock he's perching on has been roughed in only.

All rocks done and the blue sheep skull painted. Blue sheep are the natural prey of Snow Leopards and were a naturl for the pic.

Onto the main figure! I've started to rough in the wings, using the natural grey of the board for the shadows. For the wings I've used reference of a hawk wing.

Layers and layers of paint are used to build up the shape and structure of individual feathers, making sure to add in natural breaks so the wings look more realistic. The markings are added as I go along. At the very end I go in and do the darkest shadows with my darkest colour and then gone in with pure white to pick up the feather edge details. I love painting wings!

Onto the other wing now. I've only just started to lay in the colours here, roughing in major feathers, feather groups and markings.

Completed wings. I will go back and do final touches once the picture is mostly done.

Roughing the major areas on the cat. I'm using pure white at this point as I know I'm going to be doing plenty of darkening and lightening. This allows me to work the major areas to work on.

Shading on the cat body begins.

Shading on the fur is done. Time to start spotting.

And the finished pic with all the spots and a final go over to harmonize shading and shadows. Phew that was fun!

Heather text goes here. This painting was done soon after I returned from a 2007 trip to Kenya and Tanzania. I've always dreamed of going on safari and this trip was everything I'd dreamed of and more. I knew I wanted to a do a painting of zebras as they're one of my favourite animals and I'd seen so many. In the late afternoon, zebras pair up in great herds, their heads resting on each other's back. It was an arresting image. I carefully picked out a photo to base my painting on.
	This is the pencil sketch. Sorry for the glard but many of these shots were taken with a digtial camera and often the shots are not the best. As you can see I've done a pretty detailed sketch and mapped out all the strips carefully.
When painting backgrounds, especially with such a large painting, I don't want to worry about painting over my main figures. So, I carefully mask out the main figures with frisket before applying any paint. Once I have painted in the full background with lots of messy, big strokes, I wait for it to dry and then pull up the frisket. The frisket has been remvoed in this shot. I always have to remind myself to keep the backgrounds simple when working this style. I do not want the background to be too tightly rendered and make the foreground and background too flat.
	A close up of the first level of paint for the first zebra. I usually work pretty loosely with thin paint with a rather watercolour technique.
Here the head has been more fully rendered and I've loosely painted the rump area. The mostly finished head has plenty of layers of paint on it, working more and more opaquely as I've added more and more detail. I also work with smaller and smaller brushes as I've gotten closer to finished.
	The first zebra is 99% finished. I will go back and check things when I finish the other animal to make sure that shadows match up and everything harmonizes together.
This looks pretty cool as I've shaded in the white areas and the black stripes are dead white. Makes for an intersting contrast.
	Stripes have been roughted in only and white areas shaded only roughly. Starting to see the end of the tunnel! When roughing in areas like the stripes, I'm only getting the areas filled in and getting the dreaded white all covered up. This allows me to get a feel for how the final is going to look..
Here's the final. All the highlights are added in and I've laid in a green reflected wash over the bellies to ground the zebras more fully in the picture.

In this pic I wanted to play with painting on a matt board. This means that I have a mid tone already settled and can work up and down in tones from there. It makes for painting using a different technique then my usual acrylics. In the first picture I've sketched the animal onto the board and started to paint in the rock background. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see where I'm just starting to rough in the rocks while the higher up ones are mostly completed. If you look closely you can see the penciled in snow leopared.
	Rock wall and front rocks completed and the rock he's perching on has been roughed in only.
All rocks done and the blue sheep skull painted. Blue sheep are the natural prey of Snow Leopards and were a naturl for the pic.
	Onto the main figure! I've started to rough in the wings, using the natural grey of the board for the shadows. For the wings I've used reference of a hawk wing.
Layers and layers of paint are used to build up the shape and structure of individual feathers, making sure to add in natural breaks so the wings look more realistic. The markings are added as I go along. At the very end I go in and do the darkest shadows with my darkest colour and then gone in with pure white to pick up the feather edge details. I love painting wings!
	Onto the other wing now. I've only just started to lay in the colours here, roughing in major feathers, feather groups and markings.
Completed wings. I will go back and do final touches once the picture is mostly done.
	Roughing the major areas on the cat. I'm using pure white at this point as I know I'm going to be doing plenty of darkening and lightening. This allows me to work the major areas to work on.
Shading on the cat body begins.
	Shading on the fur is done. Time to start spotting.
And the finished pic with all the spots and a final go over to harmonize shading and shadows. Phew that was fun!