‘Running boar’ Painting 170917

I have long wanted to depict a wild boar, as painting or print, as my computer desktop testifies, with a folder entitled ‘boar hogs ref’ that has sat there, bulky with digital visual reference of boars in many forms for a few months now. To be honest, I like the idea of hunting one too. Like game fishing, an honest way of earning your bacon. Boars, unlike many other game quarry however, are fearless. They would square up to you in defiance if they found you threatening them or if you had the cheek to be in their territory and I respect that. Visually, they also look great - the stuff of legend, dark, matted coarse hair, thick with mud and sweat and the male boar sports sharp, intimidating tusks. They are built like a bull, all forebody, full of muscle up front and brave as you can be. I’d like to do a relief print at a later stage, (the boar’s textured pelt is perfect for a grainy print) but for now, with an evening to spare, I thought a quick loose watercolour painting would do the job nicely. (Original for sale: £75.00): petergander@gmail.com (prints may be available at a later date).

Leaving my reference at arm’s length, I like to draw my own version (i.e no tracing photos) using or re-using old paper.

Tracing the old-fashioned and unbeaten way

Tracing down onto Bockingford paper

Starting with a warm yellow fill with my squirrel mop brush 

(it holds bathfuls of liquid)

Yellow complete

Timing is everything in watercolour and a barely-visible sheen awaits before adding a dark body colour

My roof-suspended hairdryer helps drying along in my messy studio

Adding my favourite ‘Payne’s Grey’ leaving the warm yellow to shine through

Achieving that ‘grubby pelt look’, scratching away the paper’s surface to reveal highlights

Here I make a paper aperture (in this case used tracing paper) which keeps the surround clear of spatter...

Flicking paint across the boar in the direction of its movement adds dynamism and a dose of appropriate grubbiness

The final ‘Running boar’ ref:170920: 170mm x 120mm watercolour on 300gsm Bockingford ‘Gran Fin’ paper. • ORIGINAL FOR SALE £75
© Peter Gander