Sketching the Abu Herd

As I mentioned in the previous post, ‘The Abu Herd’, I spent some time out with the mahouts and the elephants. Kate kindly arranged with the mahouts for me to spend three separate days with them; as I understand it.. this was not normally something that was done - to take non members of staff out all day with them like that during their month off. So I was very honoured that they agreed.

The mahouts looked after me very well; my life was literally in their hands and I had complete confidence that they would keep me safe, They knew the landscape and animals within it so well... they knew what they were doing.  I was sitting on a thin padded car seat cushion out in the bush where there were leopard, hyena and lion…not to mention wild elephants and other big animals. No fences, no vehicle around me… just me, two mahouts and a rifle… oh, and a small ‘captive’ herd of elephants. 

What an experience

As you can imagine these were very special days for me. The experience of sitting out in the bush just listening and watching it go through its day was priceless. Added to that, I got to be by or near the elephants as they spent their day browsing or, in the case of the younger ones, playing and exploring.

Abu (left) and Naya interacting

For anyone that would be a pretty awesome experience to remember, but as an artist it also gave me a great insight to the feel of the bush, watching the light change the landscape, seeing elephants relaxed and part of the landscape - not just as a short time from the back of a vehicle, but a whole three days worth of such input. This changed the perspective of my experience of the bush. Also being on the ground - not elevated in a vehicle above the landscape, but at foot level with everything, the plants, the animals gave another element of that different perspective, visually and mentally.

I sat for long periods just trying to take in all the sights, colours, sounds… doesn’t sound like work, but it is. It relates back to the whole first hand experience thing. Observation... taking in what you see not just as a glance, but really looking into colour, shapes, depth, how things are in relation to each other, how things differ with changing light conditions etc. Having that extra insight will add depth to my understanding of the landscape and the animals within it, to better enable me to formulate compositional ideas and depict my ideas in paint. In observation you are not just looking, you are trying to understand what you see in all its separate elements and how they fuse together. 

This aspect of the process is very important. So when the idea was proposed that I put on an exhibition to raise funds and awareness for Elephants For Africa (EFA) there was no doubt in my mind I had to go and see it for myself. To not go there and then to have to paint from photographs taken by someone else, when I had no knowledge of the moment in time such images were taken, was not an option for me. If I have not seen it for myself, I will not paint it. 

I took this decision a long time ago.. I used to paint from all sorts of photo references that were not mine. For example… I love tigers, so I used to paint them a lot. But I have never seen a tiger in the wild (…yet), I have not seen how it is part of its landscape.. so I took the decision that until I do, I will not paint a tiger in a native, natural landscape. I have seen and taken photos of captive tigers.. so for the time being when I paint a tiger I put it with a non-descriptive background.. something to suggest where it might be. That ‘law’, for me, applies to everything I paint. So when this project came up… no option, no choice... I had to get to Botswana somehow, to get those references and see it for myself or else I could not/would not do the exhibition.

Paseka and Lorato chasing the truck, with Kitimetse being ridden at the rear

My days with the mahouts and elephants started around 8am either hitching a ride out on the back of the truck with the mahouts when they followed the elephants out from the Boma or being dropped off by one of the research team after the mahouts were set up at their temporary camp. I took with me a container of water and a packed lunch to keep me going. I stayed with them all day until they started the return to the Boma, via a mud bath, around 5pm, usually being picked up by Kate or Charlie, another EFA researcher. So… around 8-9 hours sat out in the bush with the elephants.  Utter, utter hell!

There was a purpose to this time spent with the mahouts.. apart from being an incredible observational experience, it enabled me to get close to the elephants to get details photographically and to sketch in a way that I could not do from a vehicle; to learn their shapes, young and older individuals, concentrate on legs, heads, bodies etc. And also to watch behaviour and see how they move, stand, rest, interacted, play etc. It was a base for me to build up my knowledge of the animals physically. I may not have got it all down on paper or captured digitally through a lens, but it went into my mind where it is recalled to help when I draw or paint back in the studio.

Limits

Obviously there were limits. I could not wander at will.. I was out in the wilds, not a theme park - no cordon of managed safety around me. I could sit in the ‘camp’ area (tent, some cushions, a water container, bags of nibbles for the ellies, a rifle and a few car seat cushions) usually set up under a stand of trees and if I kept within a few yards of the ‘tent’ (basically a sheet of tarpaulin thrown over a metal frame) in full view of the mahouts, I could move freely on my own. But as you can see the area was not open bush, so I was very restricted in that sense.  

But if I wanted to go further to explore or spend time with the elephants, a mahout had to be with me. I understood this.. working in a zoo.. if a keeper sets you limits on movement or contact with animals in their charge… you do it no question. Working with dangerous, or potentially dangerous animals, limits are set for very valid reasons, so when the mahouts said only go so far or don’t get any closer than x or y.. I did it. Despite the fact that I would have loved to have wandered on my own a bit further out from the ‘tent’, to spend hours sat by an elephant on my own to sketch and watch or to reach out and touch the skin of one… make that physical contact.  But these animals didn’t know me and even the youngest calf was more than capable of knocking me flat to the ground intentionally, or not, in play. I had limits to adhere to for very serious safety reasons; I am not complaining about that.. I completely understand; being used to it in my own working environment at the zoo. The straight fact is...I was in an amazing situation and I loved every minute of it.

Sketching

When I sketch animals, for some reason that I do not know, I prefer using pencil, but when it comes to sketching landscapes I used (for this trip) either my water-mixable oil paints for full plein air paintings or waterproof ink drawing pen and watercolours for a more light sketch approach.

When I was wanting to sketch the elephants I felt very conscious of asking the mahouts to stand with me for any length of time, not because I was shy of being watched as I did, but because I felt awkward asking them to spend their time that way. Seems silly now, but at the time I was worried about ‘wasting their time’ or being too pushy with my requests of time with the elephants… after all the herd were here to relax and be away from people!!

Sometimes the ellies were out in areas where although they were under a shady tree, to get in a position to sketch them, I was under the full force of the daytime sun; as it was at least 90 degrees in the shade, standing out in the blazing sun for more than half an hour started getting uncomfortable and, well, not really sensible.

As for the body shape… I wasn’t always looking to try and do the whole animal.. I would pick out an area on the body and try and get familiar with that - legs where they join the body, ears, heads, rear views etc. It wasn’t important to get a whole animal done, I wanted to use the time to learn about the details. I took many photos of them doing what ellies do all day, but also zoomed in on feet , tails, mouths, eyes, legs, skin from the front, side and back. 

This was something I couldn’t do out with the researchers on the route drives. These points of reference are something I can refer to if I need to understand their anatomy when I’m composing a drawing or painting. 

So the sketches are very much my learning experience of the animal/landscapes; consequently, as with all learning experiences, some I am not at all pleased with and some I am quite happy about. 

I struggled particularly with the width of the head between the tusks. Just could not seem to nail that, despite repeated tries.. some attempts were better than others, but I never seemed to get enough width in, just kept underestimating. So from that I learnt to take extra care when drawing that area of the body.. to question that particularly and reassess my sketch/drawing to make sure I am happy to work it up further. 

Concentrating on different parts at a time I could look at elements in isolation and then see it as part of the whole. 

Naya strolling by

The front legs of an elephant are deceptively long and quite elegant in relation to the massive bulk of a torso evolved to house a digestive system capable of handling huge quantities of comparatively nutrient poor grass and greenery. The ears are very individual and vary shape and size wise. Likewise the tusks. At the time I was there, Cathy had long tusks that swept round to the front of her trunk with tips that just crossed over each other, almost touching at the crossover point. She made use of this feature of hers at times and use to rest her trunk on this handy frame.

 Cathy resting her trunk

The elephants weren't the only mammals I sketched.. One of the mahouts, Vincent, got sketched as he rested on one of the cushions after lunch. I tried to do it so he didn't know I was sketching him, think I got away with it. I didn’t do him justice though, he is quite a handsome chap.

I also did some landscapes. This wasn’t about creating a pretty picture, it was about learning the shapes, textures and colours of the landscape. The truest way of getting good colour reference, for me, is from life – to apply the colour whilst the scene is there in front of me so I can try  my best to match the colours I see. I will have my photo’s to work from back in the studio, but I can’t rely on the colour as the printing process or screen set up can change the colour off its true line. So plein airs and watercolour sketches give me a base line to refer to. 

Even though I had already been sketching and doing some plein air paintings of the landscapes I could see from my tent, that landscape was quite green as I looked out across a lagoon and the flood plain. But out with the mahouts and elephants I was on a dry area of land.. so the colours and vegetation were different. So it was important to get some colour references from that landscape too. 

I left my water-mixable oils back at camp (all about lessening the load when out in the bush) and used the watercolours and ink pen instead. But one day I forgot my brushes.. I had the paints, but nothing to put it on the paper with. So after doing my sketch that I really wanted to colour… what was I to do? 

Painting with a stem of grass

I looked about me…. pondering my plight. Be resourceful, Su, use your imagination what could I do… 

How about a bit of grass instead! Of course, makes perfect sense! 

I selected a good strong stem of grass and splayed the stout end slightly, plied it with colour and tried it out. Voila! Worked a treat. So this sketch was painted using a progression of several grass stems.

I plan to do another post on my time with the mahouts this time focusing on animal encounters, in particular a big grey chap called Hunter.