SEEING STRIPES

I love Zebras, almost as beautiful in shape as a horse, but with the appeal of those amazing stripes.

The thing with zebras is that they are so appealing that their black-and-white striped images appear so often in paintings, on carpets, on clothes - almost anything you can think of - and perhaps sometimes their impact can be diminished.

So, having drawn up the sketch of the zebra, I decided to paint him with blue and brown acrylic paints. 

Not a very good photograph, sorry, the left-hand side is too shadowed - but I know you nice people are not critical about non-professional photography.  Added to which, I never remember to take shots as the painting progresses.

Acrylic paint, Pencil and Pens    -   Jez Eden

When it came to deciding on an appropriate background I was flummoxed, but then had the idea of contrasting the stripes with curlicues.  Originally my idea was to add colour to them, but I decided that would overwhelm the zebra image, so I left them as drawn.

As always, I love taking my artwork into Photoshop and seeing how it can be changed - sometimes a success, sometimes not.  This is the first of three colour-change alterations.

I am pleased with the orange/turquoise one and with the yellow/blue version.

This green/red one, perhaps does not have quite the impact I was looking for, so perhaps she is a serene, peacemaking member of the herd.

I still like the original acrylic painting the best, even if I do enjoy the colour-changing and manipulation with filters, as with these last two out-takes.