King of All Animals

King of All Animals is my first realistic animal painting I made. I finished this one on July 13, 2023. This painting took me 30 hours. I got inspired by an artist on Instagram called Nick Sider. I thought, let´s try it and see where it ends. I surprised myself of the results.

I wanted to paint a lion because a lion is called a lot in the Bible. Jesus is the Lion of Judah and He protects. It is also my favorite animal. I learned a lot while painting this piece. At first, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just doing what I thought was good. I came across a lot of difficult parts, and that started with mixing the colors. I was struggling with the right colors and I was just 2 hours mixing the right colors. Sketching on the canvas was going better than I thought. I made a grid and made sure that everything was good in proportion.

I started painting with the base colors. (There are pictures down below) I blocked down the color path on the painting, that way I knew where the colors would go. I started with the eyes and the nose and when they were on the canvas. I was already happy with the results.

The manes of the lion were a lot of struggle, because of all the hairs. I had to find a good rhythm and brush to make the best hairs. When that was done. I went with face of the lion. I started with his forehead and went down from there. The hairs were going pretty fast and I saw quick results. At this point, I was scared to overdo it and to ruin the painting. So when I thought that it was done, I stopped.

Below are behind the scenes pictures and a timelapse video from my YouTube channel.