'Habari ya maisha leo?'  (How's Life today?)

There is nothing more spectacular than a pride of lions, their breath misty in the early dawn as the sun is just rising.
The glint of gold shimmering in the fur, and the proudness of the king, his mane bushed out around his head, overseeing his kingdom.
Everything else starts to awake. Birds flitter and chirp, insects buzz around, others scurry around.
Slowly the rays of the sun warm up the land and all it's living creatures

'Sunrise'

                         

'Mum and Cubs'

The lioness is just like an overgrown pussy, washing her cubs and preening them. The cubs bound around, chasing tails, pretending to stalk one another, some get clouted from another older one when an ear is bitten. Balls of fur, legs tumbling around, then a leap onto Dad's back who really only wants to close his eyes and dream of that nice fat meal he might get!  As usual it's the wives that get the meal!

                                                   

                     





Our driver needs to stop to pull the canvas roof cover off so as we can stand up to view the game, or hunt for them with our binoculars.
We stop and then notice a pair of lions not that far away under a bush.
The driver feels it is safe enough to do what he wants if he is quick, but could we keep a check on the lions for us. We watch, our eyes out on long stalks. Those lions look a little on the skinny side. One gets up but then lies back down again. Sweat runs down our back in sheer fright. I know that if you are ever charged by a lion,  Stand Still. they only see in black and white and will hopefully take you for a bush or ant hill. If you move, god help you!! Like Hell!! My figure I hope is not quite like an ant hill just yet,  I would probably die of fright first. Thankfully none of this happened and we did not have to rush out and save anybody.

'Looking a little on the thin side'

Having said that, I have been charged and pounced on by two little cubs at the orphanage I used to go to, to play with the animals.I was just knocked over by two large furry balls! " No harm. So, Been there, Done that, Worn the Fur!!"
Continuing on the pot holed tracks, bums getting numb, and your ribs aching from the constant shaking, bumping and bucking around. Never knew these safari vehicles were made to leap over gulley's and bushes, anthills or whatever gets in the way. Out here in Africa nothing stops the drive, even rocks in dry river beds. You get the vehicle into any gear, slam the foot down on the pedal and accelerate as hard as you can.
Hit or Miss, but our bones sure know about it!
We come across some buffalo grazing by the side of the road. Known as Black Death because of their changeable temperament, they will charge at the slightest whim and are one of the most dangerous to other animals. Old bulls who have been kicked out of the herd are especially dangerous. Have seen animals that have been gored by these and left to die. Hunters know that if you injure one, you must track and kill it or else it will hunt you down. Ours just flicked their ears to keep off the flies, with tick birds pecking away on their rough hides, not taking any notice of these while they just chewed away.

Buffalo

The sun is now dropping down, a huge red ball in the sky quickly going down behind the trees. Bats will soon be swooping around, time for us to get back to camp.
Think I will join in with the hippos tonight with some grunts and snores of my own. All this fresh air gets to you!

This day and all that we have seen inspired me paint this picture.

'My Boys'

Hope you will all join me again next week, we still have a lot more animals  to see, and you never know what we will get up to! Not forgetting what picture inspired me to paint.

                             
                                                        ----------------------------------

                                           'Who's a  Handsome Boy'

   


Pastels bringing out the texture of the fur. A lot of colours go into making the fur look real.
The fur colours are a mix of dark grey, dark warm brown, pale grey, sepia, cream, black, I think that's it, but I tend to pick up colours for the odd little twiggle here and there!
When I finally get to the background am going to try a different media.Will see how it works out.

                   The eyes have now been done, and I have started on the nose.

For those who it may interest there is about 10 colours in the eyes alone.Pale and dark grey, white, cream, sepia, dark brown,a touch of orange and lime green/yellow, black. The eye is outlined and then you work on the eye itself gradually blending in the colours and bringing it to life.

I also hope to start my acrylic painting
of macaw's next week, so join me for the trials and errors of learning with acrylics!!