It was a 6 hour drive to the beach. During the final 30 minutes we saw 21 deer, all of which were to our west. They pulled up their heads from eating to give us this look as we drove by.

I had a collection of animal reference photos with me in preparation for an art event called Art Gone Wild at Zoo Atlanta.

This is that watercolor painted on a 3.9″x9.8″ Arches cotton paper block, which I later cropped down to 4″x6″ for framing. I ended up painting this using only 5 colors and the white of the paper. I focused on an accurate value scale, suggesting fur texture, and expressively saturating the deer’s local color. My favorite part is the turquoise reflected light found in the shadows. This would be the lighting effect if the deer was at the water’s edge. This was my subtle way of incorporating the entire experience into the portrait.