Jane High

Bespoke Animal Portraits

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Ingagi Zo Mu Birunga

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I was inspired to paint this portrait after visiting Howlett’s zoo in Kent with my daughter who kindly did a photo shoot for me. I decided to develop a close up shot of a gorilla’s eyes into a full face image using a limited palette of colours on a black canvas.

I began by mapping out the features using washes of white and yellow in order to see the drawing on the black background. I then blocked out areas using stronger mixes until the depth of the portrait grew, continually blending as I built up detail. Finally neat paint was used to create the textures of the gorilla’s skin and darkened areas enhanced using blues and browns.