Staring down a grizzly

To break up some of my 'art history lessons', I'll squeeze in a post about my current painting project at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center. My subjects are grizzly bear skulls.

A male and a female, both 12 years old. Both died of natural causes. The male had puncture wounds to his abdomen.The female was estimated at approximately 250 pounds, while the male was 576 1/2 pounds. The male skull is MUCH larger.

 

I decided to start with a study of the male grizzly skull this week.

My subject:

 

This needs to be drawn WELL. It's an odd angle, but it creates some very interesting shapes.

 

The drawing I do straight on the canvas with paint. You could do it with graphite, charcoal or the like, as I've done in the past. But these days, I'm comfortable just drawing right on there with paint and brush.

 

 

Next, I added some color - paying attention to the warm and cool colors that I always find fascinating on skulls and other 'white' objects. And, I played with the background.

Here, I'm a couple hours into my study. Now, I'm letting it dry and may try a warm glaze over all and add more texture to some passages. (Remember, I just came from the Fechin exhibit - so the importance of drawing, texture and boldness are front in my mind!)

 

 

Since I don't have the female skull done yet to post, I'll include a past female grizzly painting I did to round it out.

 

Yes, I've stared down other grizzly in the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center collection, too...

 

This is bear 264 - a very famous bear in the history of Yellowstone. I did a post on here way back when.

Bear 264 Study    Oil    by Shirl Ireland

A very well known mother of many cubs, seen often near the roads in Yellowstone. She had admirers. She was known to have a 'sweet disposition' (for a grizzly bear mother). I tried to captured that in my painting of her.

My 'skull paintings' I believe help me with my wildlife work. I've painted MANY skulls at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center now. They can tell a story of their lives, if you study them closely. (Did you notice the broken tooth on the grizzly skull above??)

It's always very informative to study 'what's under there' to understand wildlife (or human) anatomy. I enjoy painting skulls, not only for the interesting shapes and colors, but also for the anatomy lesson.