The conversation I had with Mrs. Button was that Rachel loved elephants. There are a lot of elephants... so we narrowed down our list of reference to a sweet and gentle type of elephant. I had originally imagined something like this:
Painted elephants are just majestic.
However, we went for a less "designed" version of an elephant. I searched for photo references and kept coming back to the Indian Elephant which are more brown in color and have smaller ears than the African Elephant. I still loved the idea of the Indian designs so my concept came to be and I got to work.
This was the reference photo I used to bring my sweet elephant to life.
(I don't know who to credit the shot to but its on Pinterest.)
I started to use a collage app on my phone to see the progress at each stage of the process. Super fun! I often take pictures of my work and make edit notes on them.
Oh the lines for the wrinkles of the trunk were exquisite! I loved the subtle details that really brought this elephant to life. I used browns, greys, purples, yellows, and blues for just the elephant itself. The Indian design was with fuchsia, gold, purple, and blues. I lurrrvvveee that pop of color! Fuchsia is one of those "Jessie" colors. I have a lot of it in my wardrobe. I kept the aqua tone and used my kneaded earser to "wash" the color out and added some deeper hues to weight the background.
She loved it. This became one of my favorite non-dog pieces.
If you love it too and want one for yourself, you can find prints and goods on Redbubble. Please note that the JPG file and screen brightness can effect the color that you see. It will print more brown and balanced.
I am already working on another piece for a date in March. It will be so hard not to share it before the big reveal. Stay tuned!
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