Animals | KIT DOMINO ART

April Artist of the Month Featured

Following the recent news that one of my early paintings has been awarded joint 3rd prize in an online national painting competition run by the Fine Art Warehouse, I am delighted to announce I have been chosen as Artist of the Month for April by Frome Valley Art Group, South Gloucestershire:

“KIT DOMINO is a self-taught artist working mainly in acrylics. Her go-to subjects are landscapes and flowers, especially bluebells, and the occasional bird or animal study. Recently one of her bluebell paintings came joint 3rd in a national art competition, and several other artworks have been awarded 1st or 2nd place over the 16 years she has been painting. She regularly exhibits at our annual art shows and enjoys running workshops teaching the joy of painting with acrylics to members and small groups… Read on.“

The 25th Frome Valley Art Show Featured

It has been a busy month for me to date, leading up to my art group’s 25th Annual Art Exhibition. I was delighted when the committee asked if they could use one of my paintings (“Sunflowers”) on the advertisement poster, placed in local newsletters, on many sites and pages on the internet, and in local shops and libraries.

For me this year, the hardest part was in deciding …Read On

(NB: The painting of the rose above my head is by another artist.)

Painting A Jaguar Featured

After successfully completing a recent commission of a pet dog, I wanted I’d try my hand at painting another animal. This time a big cat. As I love painting against a black background, I thought the colours of this beautiful creature would stand out rather than lost in a background of jungle scenery. Slow steps over many days were needed to create the final painting, which I outline here. I hope you find the process interesting.

First, having drawn an outline of the pose I wanted on 33×24 cm heavyweight canvas linen texture paper (I use Canson brand), the background was painting in using black gesso and a 1 inch flat brush, painting in outward strokes from the outline to the edges. I then drew in outline of the eyes, nose and mouth. When drawing, I always use pastel pencils as these can be easy corrected and wiped away with a damp sponge and do not show through transparent paint.

The eyes were painting in using lemon yellow, paynes grey and titanium white, checking frequently I had them in the correct position, followed by the nose and mouth. Using a mixture of burnt sienna, lemon yellow, yellow oche, and titanium white I under-painted the complete animal. Already his character was starting to appear on the canvas.

Using the same colours the fur was slowly added along with the markings to include the shadows, hind quarters and the start of the face markings. A small amount of light green was added to the eyes. Both eyes were painted over with a clear glaze. A small amount of dark purple mixed with white was used to paint the nose.