Miniature Painting - No 18 - Bald Eagle Portrait

This is the 18th miniature painting, a bald eagle. I actually painted this several days ago but with the holidays I didn't have a chance to post it right away. It's amazing how much time it takes to shop for gifts, wrap presents, ship packages, address and mail Christmas cards, and prepare for the holiday feast! But I'm sure you're all well aware of that yourselves right now! :)

So, here's the eagle painting. It was done from a photo I took at Moonridge Animal Park in Big Bear, CA. Well, it was called Moonridge Animal Park way back then. Today it's known as the Big Bear Alpine Zoo. If you're ever in the area definitely stop in and visit all the beautiful animals.

 5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

Miniature Painting - No 17 - White Wolf

Today's miniature painting, No 17, is of a white wolf standing on a snowy ridge. Well, maybe more of a cream colored wolf, or a blonde wolf, not pure white. In any case, lighter than your average wolf. :)

This was done from a very old photo, so old it was actually on paper, as in printed from 35mm film. I forgot exactly where I took this photo because it's been so long. I think it was from a trip to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville, WA many years ago. 

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

Miniature Painting - No 16 - Trotting Blacktail Deer

Miniature painting No 16 is a Columbia blacktail deer. It was actually from a photo of a blacktail doe I took in Astoria, Oregon. But I sort of converted her to a buck....added a little muscle, thickened the neck and, of course, added antlers. I was also trying to get a more "painterly" style here. :)

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

Coloring Book Page - Pileated Woodpecker

Here's a new coloring book page for the bird-lover child, a pileated woodpecker!

As with the previous coloring pages, have your kids download it, print it out, and color it or paint it any way they want, realistic or wild and crazy! (Click on the image to see a larger version. Then right-click on the larger image and select "save image as..." to save it to your hard drive.) If they want to color it realistically they can use the image below of my original painting as a reference and try to match the colors.

If you'd like to send me your child's finished colored page I'd be happy to share it on my blog here. You can email it to me at foreststudios@yahoo.com.

Miniature Painting - No 15 - Red Fox

Miniature painting No 15 is a lovely little red fox vixen warming herself in the cozy sunshine.

6"x6" oil on Gessobord

Update: SOLD 12/14

Miniature Painting - No 14 - Wolf Portrait

Miniature painting No 14, a portrait of a gray wolf. I'm trying to get more done more often so they're almost-daily paintings. :)

6"x6" oil on Gessobord

Update: SOLD 12/7

Miniature Painting - No 13 - Peregrine Falcon

Here's miniature painting No 13, a peregrine falcon done in lovely shades of soft gray and lavender.

7"x5" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

Holiday Greeting Card Sale!

I have reduced the greeting card price on select images, paintings I think would make great Christmas greeting cards for wildlife lovers, such as snowy scenes with wolves and deer, and even a snowman in one! So if you're still trying to decide on holiday greeting cards, here's your chance to get something unique. Definitely not the same old Santa greeting card your friends and neighbors will all be buying at your local drug store! Have you ever been in the unfortunate situation where you sent someone the same card they sent you because you both shop at the same store? Ugh! Not much chance of that if you order a unique card from one of the wildlife paintings shown here. Now at a reduced price, for the next couple weeks only!

If you already have your greeting cards this year, remember you can also order these images as prints for holiday decorating, or to give as gifts.

Click the image to order!

 

Happy Holidays!

Miniature Painting - No 12 - Polar Bear

Miniature painting No 12, a polar bear wandering his arctic landscape.

5"x7" oil on Gessobord 

Original: SOLD

This would also make a great holiday greeting card!

Miniature Painting - No 11

Miniature painting No 11 is a bighorn sheep. Going for a monochrome look here, with all brown on brown.

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

Coloring Book Page for Kids - Christmas Deer and Snowman

In celebration of the holiday season here's a printable coloring book page for the kids to enjoy. It features a whitetail deer nibbling the carrot nose off a snowman while a bunny looks on, hoping the deer will share a piece of the tasty treat.

As with the previous coloring pages, have your kids download it, print it out, and color it or paint it any way they want, realistic or wild and crazy! (Click on the image to see a larger version. Then right-click on the larger image and select "save image as..." to save it to your hard drive.)

This coloring page was created from a small painting I did recently. Below is the image of the painting your children can use as color reference. Of course, they're free to use their own imagination and color it however they want.

Holiday greeting cards can be made from this image on Fine Art America.

Miniature Painting - No 10 - Pelagic Cormorant

Miniature painting No 10 is a a pelagic cormorant.

7"x5" oil on Gessobord

These solid black birds are anything but plain black. They have amazingly beautiful iridescent feathers, with lovely shades of blue, green, and purple!

The reference for this bird was taken on my trip to Astoria, Oregon.

Original: SOLD

Miniature Painting - No 9 - African Lion

Miniature painting No 9, a majestic black-maned African lion. This is a little unusual for me since I rarely paint African wildlife. But what's not to love about the King of the Jungle? Or, that really should be 'King of the Savannah"!

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

In Honor of Turkeys on Thanksgiving

To honor the many turkeys that gave their lives for our Thanksgiving feast today I'm posting some images of wildlife art representing turkeys in paintings to honor this majestic bird.

Challenge at Turkey Creek
by Jim Killen 

First Rays of Dawn
by Murrell Butler

Grandfather Gobbler
by Ryan Kirby

Miniature Painting - No 8 - Christmas Deer

Miniature painting No 8 is a holiday greeting scene.It shows a deer nibbling the carrot nose off a snowman while a little bunny looks on, wishing he could have reached the carrot himself I'm sure! Perhaps the deer will be nice and share a bit. :)

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Update: SOLD 11/23

Holiday greeting cards can be made from this image on Fine Art America.

Miniature Painting - No 7 - Pileated Woodpecker

Miniature painting No 7, a beautiful pileated woodpecker.

Pileated Woodpecker
5"x7" oil on Gessobord

This lovely bird was photographed on my own bird feeder in my backyard. There are plenty of pileated woodpeckers in the area here (I hear them a lot) but they're hard to spot in the trees, and it's rare for them to land on a feeder. They are such timid birds they'll fly away at the first sight of you, even if you're pretty far away. I was lucky enough to sneak up on this guy from inside the house and get a shot at him through the window. I think the reflection on the window must have hid me from his view.

Update: SOLD 11/22

How to Ship a Wet Painting

What do you do when you sell a painting before it dries and you need to ship it?

Yeah, yeah, I know, selling a painting that fast is not normally an issue. I'm sure we artists all wish it were a daily problem. :)

But, once in a while it happens.

I recently had a deer painting sell the very day after I finished it and posted it for sale. Normally I put my paintings in a 7 day auction so they have a whole week to dry before being shipped to their new owners. But in this case I had put a buy-out price and it sold right away. I didn't want the buyer to have to wait a week for it to dry before I shipped it. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot of advantage to using the buy-out, is there? So, I had to think of a way to ship it before it was completely dry.

The painting was mostly dry to the touch the next day but still a bit tacky. Certainly not dry enough to tolerate packaging material pressing up against it. I decided to solve the problem by making a little box that would grip it by the edges and keep the face of it from touching anything. So here's what I came up with.

First, start with a piece of cardboard a little less than twice the size of the painting.  Notch out triangular wedges so the points meet the corner of the paintings, as shown in yellow below.

Next, fold the corners over. Make sure the point of the folded pieces lines up with the outer edge of the cardboard. This will insure that the outer walls are sloped inward when folded, which is what you want to do to hold the painting in place without touching the face of it.

Next, fold the ends and sides up, as show below. Tape the pointed bits to the end so their edges line up with the bottom of the box, not the top. Make sure the top of the box slopes inward. This slope on all four sides is important for holding the painting in place. Note the angle of the yellow lines below is less than 90º.

See below how I can tilt the box and the painting will not fall out because the wedge-shaped sides hold it in place.

Next you want to make a little lid for it, something stiff, so that the packaging material will not touch the face of the painting. Here I just added another piece of cardboard, a little bigger than the box opening, to cover the top. Tape it securely on all four sides.

Finally, remember this protective box is not your actual shipping box.It's just to keep the packing material off the painting. Next you need to place the little box in your bigger shipping box and be sure to add packing material like air bags or packing peanuts around it. You want at least in inch on all sides for small painting like this one. For a larger painting you'll want at least 2 inches on each side.

I'm happy to say the buyer contacted me to let me know this painting arrived at its destination safe and unblemished.

I'm sure there are other ways to ship a wet painting. There's probably packaging you can buy that's designed just for that. But, what's better than an inexpensive, nearly-free art shipping crate created from a few scraps of cardboard, some tape, and a little ingenuity? :)

Miniature Painting - Painting No 6 - Crow

Here's miniature painting Number 6, a crow cawing.

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

I took this photo at the Woodland Park zoo in Seattle. He wasn't a zoo animal, but had flown down to see what was going on, probably looking for snacks from visitors.

It's been a while since I took the picture so I don't recall what the lighting was like that day but the crow seemed to have an interesting sort of mauve color reflecting off his feathers. I thought it looked lovely against the black so I decided to go with that in the background to tie it all together.

(SOLD. Sorry, but this painting sold within a couple hours of offering it for sale, so it was no longer available by the time I wrote this post. Keep checking back for the next one, or take a look at other paintings that are still available!)

Miniature Painting - Painting No 5 - Cougar

Miniature painting number 5, a cougar (or puma or mountain lion, if you prefer) looking over a cliff.

 Mountain Lion No1

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

This is probably my first cougar painting. I've painted other big cats before, a few tigers, and a couple African lions. But I don't think I've done a mountain lion before. That's one nice thing about doing all these little mini paintings. Because I can do one in a day I get to do a lot more paintings and paint a lot more subjects. When I'm done with my 60 paintings I'll have a better idea of which subjects are more fun to do and will probably do a few larger ones of those subjects.

The reference photo for this painting was taken at the Triple D Game farm in Kalispell, MT when I took a wildlife photography workshop there a couple years ago. They have a lot of beautiful animals there and it's not like photographing in a zoo. The animals are taken out to natural settings for you. Their handlers encourage them to run and play and stalk and chase lures so you can get some great photos of wild animals moving and behaving naturally. If you ever get the chance to take a workshop there I highly recommend it.

Miniature Painting - Painting No 4 - Sea Lion

Miniature painting number #4, a sea lion basking in the sun after a recent dip in the Columbia River.

This is something new for me. I don't think I've ever painted a sea lion before, or any marine mammal for that matter. The shiny wet coat was a challenge, but fun. Painting wet fur is not something I have a lot of experience with so I had to rework the white areas a couple times to get them to look like wet shine rather than the sea lion looking like a pinto horse. :)

Sea Lion No1
6"x6" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

The photo reference for this painting was taken during my trip to Astoria, Oregon a couple years ago. I remember when visiting the Astoria Column I could hear quite a ruckus coming from down by the water. I asked a local about the sound and got an exasperated response about sea lions on the docks. Apparently they are quite an attraction for visitors, but a most unwelcome guest to the locals. Not only do they keep residents awake at night from their incessant barking, but they cause all sorts of problems at the marina docks where they like to gather. They gather in quite large numbers, completely covering the docks, sometimes so many sea lions on one dock they actually sink or damage it from their weight. They can be dangerous if approached so this makes it difficult, if not impossible, for people to reach their boats. Fortunately, the sea lions don't stay there all year so life can return to normal for the residents before long.

Whether they are welcome or not, I had fun taking photos. They spend a lot of time squabbling and chasing each other off the best spots, so they were rather entertaining to watch.

Waterfall Wildlife Painting Background Done

Well, I finally finished the background in my waterfall wildlife painting! It may need a touch or two here and there, maybe some more fallen leaves on the rocks. But overall it's pretty much done. Now comes the fun part, the animals! Besides being the fun part, it's also the scary part. I've spent so long on the background that if I don't get the animals just right it could ruin the whole look and feel I'm going for. Yikes! I think I'll wait until the background is really, really dry before adding the animals. That way if they aren't looking just right and I wipe them off and start over without messing up the background. :)

16"x20 oil on Gessobord

Miniature Painting - No 3 - Goldfinch

Miniature painting #3, an American Goldfinch.

American Goldfinch
7"x5" oil on Gessobord

Such colorful, cute little birds they are! I thought a violet background made a nice contrast to his bright yellow coloring.

I took the reference photo for this at my bird feeder in the backyard. We get a lot of chickadees, house finches, nuthatches, bushtits, pine siskins, and even woodpeckers at our bird feeder. But the goldfinch is a rare sight. So when this guy landed for a snack I had to take as many pictures as I could before he flew away. So you may see some more goldfinch paintings before long. :)

(Update: Sold 11/11)

Miniature Painting - No 2 - Seagull

Today's miniature painting is a seagull in flight. This is also from a reference photo I took in Astoria, OR, the same trip as when I took the deer photo for the previous painting.

I love backlighting like this, with the light shining through the feathers from above. And the bright white bird against the deep blue sky had such nice contrast. I think blue and white are always lovely together, like snow and water.

 Seagull in Flight

7"x5" oil on Gessobord

As I mentioned previously, I've been doing smaller works to try to loosen up and prevent myself from obsessing over tiny detail. This hasn't worked very well because I usually just manage to find a smaller brush to do smaller detail. :) But, in this case, I managed to resist my temptation to use a tiny brush and got some nice thick painterly brush strokes in there. Please comment and let me know what you think!

Miniature Painting - Painting No 1 - Deer

This is something I've been working on for a while but just blogged about. I want to do a series of miniature paintings.

I have been told by numerous people, including experienced gallery owners, that my paintings are priced too low. I need to raise the prices. But I don't want to do that just yet. I want to keep them affordable for anyone for a while. Along the lines of the a-painting-a-day idea, I want to do miniature paintings to sell at affordable prices. These paintings are not true miniatures but will normally be either 5"x7" or 6"x6 in size.


To start off here's is a Columbian Blacktail buck. I took the reference photo for this painting while visiting Astoria, Oregon, a couple years ago. I'd gone to see the Astoria Column, which has an amazing view of Columnia River gorge, and the deer were wandering the grassy areas around the park.

Part of the reason I'm doing these smaller works is to "loosen up" and try not to obsess over fine detail. This buck is an example of a looser, more "painterly" work.

(Update: Sold 10/31)

Artists Struggle With Titles

I recently read a forum post about an artist's frustration with naming artwork. I can relate. I struggle with titles too. But, as difficult as they are to come up with sometimes, we can't neglect this important step in creating and sharing our artwork. Titles can really make a huge difference for our art. Art doesn't always speak for itself. That doesn't mean it's bad or complicated. It just means viewers need to be pointed in the right direction. A title can evoke an emotional response to a painting that the viewer might not otherwise notice without this prompting. The title can give them so much more information about the story behind the painting, or what the artist was experiencing at the time. You want viewers to have that emotional connection. It helps them remember your art ... and you, the artist!

Here is my favorite example, a blog post I did a while back about a western artist, Jim Clements: The Importance of Good Title

When I first saw that piece, I thought it was beautiful simply because it was well done and the colors and lighting were lovely. But then I read the title I was nearly in tears. I will never, ever forget that painting now.

So, yes, thinking of titles is as much fun as going to the dentist for most of us. But, as you can see, it can have a huge impact. So it's very important, like it or not.

If you are struggling with a title try to think of something emotional related to it. Is the mood of the scene emotional in some way? Is it rainy and gloomy? Is it sunny and happy? Is the subject doing or feeling something emotional, possibly? Cowering? Sulking? Celebrating? If the subject itself is not emotional, perhaps you can use an emotion you were feeling when you first saw the scene, or how you felt while creating it.

If the artwork itself does not evoke an emotional response, try to think outside the box. Maybe go with a color, flavor, or sent that evokes emotion. Sounds crazy. But, I once painted a simple snow leopard cub. He wasn't doing anything in particular so I couldn't think of a title that told a story. But the colors I used had blue violet in the rocks behind him, and his fur was sunlit creamy yellow. The color combination made me think of some boysenberry ice cream I'd recently had that was most delicious! So I ended up calling it "Boysenberry Cream". Not brilliant perhaps. But better than "Untitled" or simply "Snow Leopard Cub" I think. Even though boysenberry ice cream may be unrelated to snow leopards, because of the color relation, it can still have an emotional impact. Who can't relate to enjoying some boysenberry cream pie at a family get-together, or some boysenberry ice cream on a hot summer day?

If all else fails, try Googling paintings that have a similar subject/style to the one you're trying to name. See what other artists are naming similar paintings and, when you find one you like, see if you can make your own variation of it. "Untitled" is definitely not the way to go.

In case you're curious, here's the snow leopard cub painting.

Waterfall Wildlife Painting - WIP

I'm still working away at the waterfall painting, among other things. I'm getting very close to finished with the background. Getting some foreground vegetation in now. Here's an update on the background progress.

Next the really fun part starts ... the animals! I have not decided for sure yet which animal will take the stage. I've mostly decided but I'll keep it a surprise which one I'm leaning toward. :) Not to fear, however. It was down to deer or wolves. Whichever you wanted, you won't be disappointed, though. No, I'm not going to put both in one painting. But I already have a second painting in the works for the animal that didn't make it into this painting. I think the setting for in the second painting will fit that animal even better. So you'll be happy with it too. Stay tuned!

Coloring Book Page for Kids - Black Bear

Here's a new coloring book page for the kids.

As with the previous coloring pages, have your kids download it, print it out, and color it or paint it any way they want, realistic or wild and crazy! (Click on the image to see a larger version. Then right-click on the larger image and select "save image as..." to save it to your hard drive.) If they want to color it realistically they can use the image below of my original painting as a reference and try to match the colors.

If you'd like to send me your child's finished colored page I'd be happy to share it on my blog here. You can email it to me at foreststudios@yahoo.com.

Beagle Puppy Painting on Etsy

Here's a mini painting I did of a beagle puppy, the third in my "paint the pets" series, you might call it.

 "Paint My World - Beagle Puppy"
5"x7" oil on Gessobord
SOLD

In this series I had the art paint brush painted in as part of the image itself, the paint brush creating the world that it, and the animal, are both in. In case you didn't see my first two in the series, here they are again.

"Brushing the Cat"
6"x6" oil on Gessobord
SOLD

 "Brushing the Dog"
6"x6" oil on Gessobord
SOLD

I'm mentioning the beagle pup painting here because I had this painting in auction a time or two and, based on feedback, I'm getting the feeling people really don't like buying art through auctions. If they want to buy a painting, they want to buy it now, not wait a week. On top of that, they don't like the anxiety of worrying they'll be outbid and lose the painting. So I have decided to start moving more of my artwork to Etsy and PayPal so people can just buy it immediately, without dealing the auction. This is one painting I just moved from auction to Etsy so it can be purchased immediately with no competition. I hope by having more artwork available for immediately purchase, and less artwork in the auctions, that it makes things easier and more pleasant for both of us. :)

Artists Don't Work!

Artists don't work. They just goof off all day! Have you ever heard that? I have many times throughout the years. Non-artists seem to have no idea how much time and effort it takes to create a piece of art. Let's not even talk about all the years and years of practice and classes and workshops and reading books and watching videos. Forget that. I'm talking strictly the time put into one piece of art, in my case a painting. They seem to think I just whip up a painting in a matter of minutes without any effort at all. Here are some of the comments I've received as a result of saying I do wildlife art for a living.

"It must be nice not to have to work!"

"You're so lucky to be able to just goof off all day!"

"Really? I wish I didn't have to have a real job, either!"

"It must be wonderful to just have fun all day!"

"Wow, I can't believe you get paid for doing nothing all day."

There are many variations on these, of course. But you get the idea. Non-artists seem to think I just sit around in a blissful state of art nirvana all day with not a care in the world, art just flowing through me like water through a stream! Yeah, that really would be nice!

The reality is, art is work. As artists we are definitely not goofing off all day. It takes time, effort, and patience to create a piece of art. And all that time is definitely not always pleasant. Sure, once in a while you can get into "the zone" where the muse takes over and art just seems to flow effortlessly from your fingertips. But, despite common belief, that rarely happens. The reality is creating art takes conscious effort. And, like any project, it does not always go as planned. Artists struggle sometimes. They make mistakes. They have to redo things. Sometimes no matter what they try, it just doesn't work and they have to throw it all out and start over. It's not all fun and games. Creating art can be frustrating, tiring, and even boring (yes, painting leaves on trees for days on end can get boring after a while), just like any other form of work. Sometimes artists even wonder why they're doing it. Art is anything but blissful nirvana all day. It's work, just like any other job.

So why do we do it? Why not just get a "real job" like most people? Because, despite the difficulties, there's a passion to it. There's some crazy drive in us to get it done despite the frustration. I'd say it's a bit like climbing Mount Everest. You're tired. You're cold. You've got frost bite. You're wondering if you've lost your mind. But that mountain peak beckons you for unknown reasons. So you keep trudging on, despite the cold, because you have to reach the top. It feels so good to reach the top!

OK, I've never tried to climb Mount Everest, so maybe this isn't a fair analogy. I'm sure, in reality, I'd rather fight my canvas than fight the elements there. But you get my point I hope.

In the artist's case, we keep trudging on despite the frustration, because we want to reach that finished piece of art! It feels so good to finish a piece! It just has to be done!

Maybe climbing mountains is nuts. And maybe creating art is nuts too. But in any case, never assume that either does not require a lot of time, effort, and work.

Bears in My Back Yard!

I love wildlife. I really do. And I love seeing it close up. Well, most of it at least. But there are, of course, certain animals you don't want to get too close to. Bears are definitely near the top of the list there. 

Since we moved from the suburbs to a more rural part of Washington last fall I have seen a lot more wildlife. I've seen deer, coyote, and bobcat wandering right down our street and through our yard. But I had never even heard of a bear in the area. 

Well, surprise, surprise. Look what I woke up to right on my back patio the other day.

I still haven't actually seen the bear. But after Googling "bear scat" and consulting with some more knowledgeable rural folk, it's definitely been identified as black bear poo. 

OK, that's not a big deal, knowing there are bears in the area. There are a lot of wooded areas around here, after all. But the fact that this bear chose to do its thing on our brick patio, as you can see, is a bit unnerving. 

I had originally hoped it was either from a really big coyote, or a neighborhood dog. But after looking closely it was obvious the scat was full of berry seeds and fruit pits. I did some online research about black bears and their preferred diet this time of year is fruits and berries. Yikes! Definitely not a neighborhood dog. Oddly, despite the fact that bears are after fruits and berries this time of year, they did not bother our raspberries or Asian Pear trees.

Why this bear decided to wander into our yard, poop on our patio, but not bother our garden or fruit trees is beyond me. Perhaps it was telling me it was time to paint a bear. It's been a very long time since I painted a bear. And the last time I painted a bear it was a grizzly bear. I don't think I've ever painted a black bear. I guess it's time to appease the black bear gods! lol

Waterfall Wildlife Crossing Painting Progress

Here's an update to my waterfall wildlife painting. I've obviously filled in a bit more of the background/foreground. But I also did a Photoshop mockup of potential wildlife to add to the scene.

I think I've pretty much ruled out bears at this time. Though bears are more often associated with streams and waterfalls than are deer and wolves, that's just the problem. If you do a little searching online you will find there is no shortage of paintings with bears by water. I want my painting to be a little different. There seems to be less artwork depicting deer or wolves by waterfalls, creeks, rivers, streams, etc., so these subjects makes the painting more unique.

But now I have to decide which one. Deer seem to match the color of the autumn scenery better, and add a sense of peace and tranquility. However, the wolves are more unique and add some excitement to the scene. I have had some comments that the lighting in the version with the wolves makes them stand out more and is, therefore, a more appealing choice. But I could paint the lighting similarly on the deer too, so that's not really the issue. It's just a matter of which animal has a wider appeal.

Would you prefer to see wolves or deer in this sort of setting? Let me know what you think.

Red Fox Mini Painting

I recently finished this little mini painting of a red fox in what I considered a rather elegant pose. I like the sleek lines and curves in this pose. This is from a reference photo I took when I went to a photo shoot at the Triple D Game Farm in Kalispell, MT. 

7"x5" oil on canvas
Currently up for auction at Daily Paintworks.

Waterfall Wildlife Crossing Painting

Here's something I'm working on, a painting of a waterfall (obviously) with the intention of adding some animals crossing the stream. I'm trying to decide if I put bears, deer, or wolves in the scene. A few people I asked mentioned that bears are more commonly seen around water. True. But keep in mind this is just a scene of animals crossing the stream. They're not fishing or lounging about, so association with water isn't necessary. The animals just want to get to the other side. So it's really just a matter of what animal you would most like to see in this painting. What should it be?

Deer?
Bears?
Wolves?

What's your vote?

Leopard Coloring Page for Kids

I have another coloring book page for your kids to print out and enjoy. This time it is of leopard on the prowl.

As with the previous coloring pages, have your kids download it, print it out, and color it or paint it any way they want, realistic or wild and crazy! (Click on the image to see a larger version. Then right-click on the larger image and select "save image as..." to save it to your hard drive.) If they want to color it realistically they can use the image below of my original painting as a reference and try to match the colors.

If you'd like to send me your child's finished colored page I'd be happy to share it on my blog here. You can email it to me at foreststudios@yahoo.com.