Stages in the creation of

"THE IRISH THREEPENNY HARE"

Image Size 23.5" x 22"

Thanks to the discovery of E-bay or the "curse of", depending on your viewpoint of how much rubbish you managed to buy. Amongst the numerous items that came up as "Hare" related was this Irish Threepenny bit. This inspired me to start work on a large pen and ink sketch of one of my "styled" Hares posing in this position.

This is the start of the sketch. Sorry for tatty picture as I took it at 3 a.m. in the morning having got the idea at 1 a.m. and started the picture. The design is first sketched out in pencil until I am satisfied with the final pose and form and then work is started using the Rotring ink pens. I use two main thicknesses of nib 0.05 and 0.1. The 0.05 for finer crosshatching and the big fella for darker broader lines and areas.

The ink is a mixture of Black with Red added to warm it up a bit. I can add more red or black if I want different tones. So all in all there are quite a number of variables. Colour, intensity of crosshatching , thickness of lines etc... to play about with.

A few days later (with some sleep in between) I had got this far having got most of the head and ears done and making a start on the body..

At this point I had a phonecall from a farmer friend John Blaengurig, whom I play bowls with to say he'd come across a dead hare in one of his fields and he knew I was after one so "Did I want it ?". An hour later I was driving home with its sad little bloodied body stretched out on the passenger seat of the car (The hare that is... John is a huge burly fella. He wouldn't have fitted.)

I took some photos of it and made a few hasty sketches of it posed on its side with particular interest in the body fur patterns with a view to using them in this picture. I made the mistake of leaving it overnight on the garden bench. My wife commented that the cats were not very interested in their breakfast that next morning.

My hare when I went to look at it was now half way up the garden minus it's head and other extremities. the perishing cats had been feasting on it. No wonder they didn't feel like brekkies!. I had considered the night before, of putting it in the freezer but my wife had complained the last time when she found a dead Weasel in the icebox once.

My daughter, for her A level art project once had a live lobster in the fridge for 5 days. Now that was scary!

Having got on well with the body fur, using my notes and what few photos I'd taken of the fur and getting a bit bored with doing it . I decided to start on the background. The Sun/Moon size having been decided by a plate that was on the table I was working on at the time. A few positions tried with the plate and I eventually settled on a position behind the head. A quick pencil line around it and then a start at doing the rest of the background simply by random crosshatching with small lines.

I always find myself thinking at some point "Why all this work" and find it tedious at times regretting starting it.. but when for example I am stewarding at an exhibition, it is something to keep me busy rather than staring at the walls. A bit like reading a book on a train as well. If I am feeling lazy or unsociable its useful to appear preoccupied. The final effect of using the same techniqueand style however, always works and compliments the main subject.

I'm beginning to like the strata-like cloud effect of the shapes left where I have still to work. Must look at some clouds and pencil in a few shapes to see how they'd look. It will save me a few hours crosshatching at least.

A close-up of the head.

Well, I finally finished it! 2.15 am Monday April 3rd after an all night slog. I still have that feeling that I'd like to do more detail but a deadline is looming for an exhibition I've entered it into so who knows? If it doesn't sell then I can always unframe it and add to it.