After a several months pause in the serie of posts related to the making of “The Big One”, I come back on air and post the new steps until the final.

As a reminder, “The Big One” is an oil painting of 2.50 meters high and 2 meters wide, representing an elephant in full charge. This is the biggest painting I’ve ever done. Working during the weekend, it is now about a year since I started. I invite you to discover the earlier steps of the painting and small videos that I uploaded.

After the trunk and tusks, I had to do the legs and yhe body of the elephant. I applied a diluted juice that allows me to draw the large volumes (light and shadow) without the details of the cracks.

Work on the left leg

The elephant’s legs skin looks thiner, at least more flexible than on the rest of the body, giving an draped effect , one gets the impression of a sheet stretched between the hip and the base of the foot. One Safari guide explained to me that despite their imposing size elephant produce virtually no noise as they move into the bushes. Their skin absorbs noise, and you hear a slight rubbing.

The Big One - 2,5m x2 m - travail en cours

So I tried to make this draped effect over the left front leg.

Without staying too long on the foot itself, which will disappear in the darkness and the dust later.

See also :
The Big One : Part 1 -Part 8 - Part 9 – part 10 – Part 11