As I mentioned before, I have always been fascinated by the idea of painting outdoor, also known as plein air painting. One opportunity that I recently had of painting outdoor was when we had a year-end function at the Johannesburg Zoo. I sat down with the intention of capturing an atmosphere, rather than being too specific in capturing the reality. The sketch below was the outcome. IT worked against time and with an audience, but some things still came out fine. I did not like the faces. I am bad with face and I am still working on improving. Sometime I actually leave the face out all together. The postures were also not good and the trees in the background is blobby, but I liked the shadows and the tree on the left. It may sound like I did not like the work at all. I may find a lot of faults with it, but for me it was a milestone in trying to capture a moment from real life with people looking over my shoulder and me working against time.
Johannesburg Zoo
Francois' Art Blog 