The energy and natural power of a southern Indiana forest seems to surge through this lunging black lab. A struggle exists between the steep slopes and the strained effort of the beast soaring uphill. Draw your own parallels to society either locally or globally, but I think the most striking takeaway is the fluidity of action. Yes, it’s uphill and conditions are harsh, yet the animal glides forth headstrong unaware, born of the same hills he struggles wildly against.

Aside from my usual bag of tricks, a new feature that I’m happy about in this piece is the way I handled the trees. I used a stained-glass approach to balance out the fade of dark to light (from left to right). The darkest point is the apex, where the dog’s tail meets with the distant woods, each headed in their opposed directions. As the woods reveal themselves towards the right side of the piece, they gradually become lighter in shade. Of course this two-dimensional approach to defining depth does not exist naturally in the wild, but optically it achieves my intentions of establishing depth and distance. Continue reading »