Animal Paintings: bring you Nature's Beauty and wonder

What a joy it is doing animal paintings! There are so many interesting critters to paint.

Enjoy the wonders of wild, underwater and domestic animals. Every creature, big or small, has a beauty and wonder worth painting and sharing with others.

Colorful oils or watercolors combine the glories of nature with the expression of art.

Leafy Portrait

Leafy Sea Dragons are the most amazing gift from God on the coral reef of Australia. There are several different types of leafies. The common type grows to about a foot in length.

They are well camouflaged in the sea grasses where they spend much of their time. They can stay still for hours at a time and also, sway in the currents to mimic the sea grass.

This leafy deserved to have his "Leafy Portrait" painted.

Their leafy appendages help keep them safe from predators. Larger fish don't like to eat them because of all their appendages and the sharp spines on their back.

animal paintings by carol may

Sea Grass

While we were out snorkeling in south Florida, I was amazed to see the native seahorses in among the "Sea Grass".

They were quiet little animals just hanging on the grasses. They lean slightly forward when they swim, looking for something else to hang onto again.

What a treat it was to see them. They were a pale, light color. But for this animal painting, I made them orange to contrast with the green sea-grasses.

Christmas Pony

My sister and I went to a cookout at the local feed store. The food was good, but the best thing was watching all the children running and playing.

The owner's daughter was riding her stick horse named Bucky!

Some lucky child will be getting a real pony, not a stick horse but, a live "Christmas Pony".

Two Gentle Giants

Manatees make great animal paintings. They are interesting ancient critters. They are Florida's state marine animal and they are protected.

Manatees are actually related to elephants and they are sometimes called Sea Elephants.

They are slow moving critters. If you are in the area where they are resident, watch out for them. Be careful and don't hit them with your boat propellers.

Here are the amazing “Two Gentle Giants”.

Calico Kitty

It's good practice to paint our domestic animals, like dogs and cat, geckos or whatever you have. Here's a "Calico Kitty".

We don't have to do large paintings. When we paint smaller it's encouraging to see a completed painting. Very large paintings can sometimes take weeks, even months to complete.

When your painting time is limited try painting smaller to get Daily Painting practice time.

Easy Freedom

This lively, colorful horse painting was painted for a lady that was having a hard time. The painting was done to encourage her that she was on her way to "Easy Freedom".

This sprightly horse looks like he is having fun prancing through the flowers.

Two Stripies

This colorful sea life painting is not actually an animal painting, but there isn't an underwater painting page on Art by Carol May.

While living in Florida I enjoyed doing underwater nature paintings. I love color and had lots of fun doing the colorful Banded Butterfly fish. It's called "Two Stripies".

Did you notice the starfish in the painting?

Coral Fish

The tropical sea life that lives in among the coral is amazing. We had the privilege of visiting the John Pennekamp State Park in south Florida.

You can go on glass-bottom boat tours out over the coral reef and see the swarms of beautiful tropical fish. What an amazing sight they are. You get to see large schools of the brightly colored fish with their glistening colors.

It makes you want to do a painting of the "Coral Fish". Here is a beautiful Parrot Fish painted in oils with his little buddy following him.

wildlife paintings

"Born to Reign".

King of the jungle or the plains of Africa. The lion was "Born to Reign".

Depending on where they live, lions may be colored all the way from a warm tan to brown. This one is painted with a brown body to show off his light-colored mane.

You can paint wildlife art, too with the step-by-step lion tutorial.

"Spots"

Sometimes I just enjoy the critters for a long time before painting them. That's what happened with this giraffe painting. 

The giraffes spend much of their time eating in the dappled sun and shadows under the trees. God put spots on the giraffe to camouflage them where they spend their time.

The sun and shadows in the leaves are echoed by the markings on the giraffe. So, this giraffe painting is named "Spots".

Cottontail

At one time I had a whole selection of Walter Foster Art books. When I couldn't think of anything to paint, I would flip through the books looking for ideas.

This little wildlife painting was done years ago from a Walter Foster book that I don't see anymore.

However, here is a great book on Drawing Wildlife from Amazon that you might find helpful.

I did this "Cottontail" painting in a tablet of canvas paper that has the texture of canvas. You can see the texture in the photo.

When we just want to practice or try something, canvas paper is great. It comes in different sizes and it's more economical than purchasing stretched canvas. I used Strathmore Canvas Paper Pad.

Baby Elephant 'n' Butterfly

One time I did an animal calendar for children. This baby elephant has never seen a butterfly before, especially one on his trunk.

So, in amazement he is looking and try to figure out what it is in "Baby Elephant 'n' Butterfly".

Imagining things and then painting them is the joy of painting.

Cardinal 'n' Dogwood

I went out and painted some of the wild Dogwood flowers while they were blooming.

After I came home, a male Cardinal made a good addition for the "Cardinal 'n' Dogwood" painting. Birds and flowers are always a good combination for a painting.

Start oil painting with an Oriole and Dogwood flowers.

Pelican Resting

When we first moved to Florida, I was amazed by all the large water birds, especially the pelicans. Pelicans were the subject of many of my animal paintings.

Here is a "Resting Pelican" on a post in one of their typical poses.

My husband said "He" is trying to lay an egg! Ha-ha Lots of fun!

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