Besides the Color and Design work that I do for my clients, much of my time is spent in my studio painting.
This is a short video that describes the process of developing the concepts, compositions, and color palette that goes into the artwork.
Wildlife Painting
"A Cheetah for Maks" by Nathalie Tierce
One of the thrills I get when I start a new commission is I usually discover something new about the subject. Whether it's a place, a person or an abstract that needs to reflect and speak to a specific space where it will be hung, there's always the learning aspect to it.
This time the subject was wildlife, specifically a cheetah. In my mind I roughly had an image of what one looked like. As I started to study the subject I realized I had melded a leopard and cheetah into one animal.
In the excitement of wanting to get started; I jumped in and began a sketch of what I quickly found out was a leopard (as seen below).
"Leopard" sketch by Nathalie Tierce
Research and preliminary drawings are a crucial part of the process when I'm beginning a project so all is not lost when something like this happens. Outside of making sure that the details of the subject are correct (like getting the right species!) a quick painting like this is a handy guide for determining the mood, palette and style. In this case, a more restrained color range was chosen in the end which created focus on the cheetah's lovely pattern.