How To Paint An Awesome Deer

With over 80,000 likes on his Facebook page, my friend Tony O’Connor is a social media rockstar artist!

A very talented painter specializing in equine art, Tony captivates his following with beautiful art and tutorials like, How To Paint An Awesome Deer (it looks like and elk, but it’s a red deer).
I hope you enjoy his ‘how to paint’ tutorial below.

Step 1

Loosely sketch out the deer… and when I say loosely, I mean not loosely at all.. try and get it in proportion and try to draw the antlers looking evenly spaced/balanced on his head.

Step 2

Stretch some linen over a 40″x40″ thick canvas stretcher/prime it with a clear gesso, and scale up your sketch to suit.

I use a willow charcoal very lightly to start with, as linen isn’t as forgiving as gessoed canvas. If you do this too heavily, it will leave a mark – and well, one does want ones linen looking immaculate once the painting part is done.. so this means being extra careful. The paint will also tend to stain the “negative space” that you want leave… so its a good exercise in patience and control…

Step 3

Start slapping on paint… I prefer to start from the top down with this kind of piece, working from left to right, as I am right handed (can hold coffee cup in left hand, or have it hooked up intravenously).

Step 4

Colour in-between the lines…Take a deep breath & stand back….

I shall leave this to dry for a few days before the fun begins with building up glazes & layers of translucent colour to hopefully give depth, form, structure and the ‘X’ factor to the piece!

Guest author/artist: Tony O’Connor  is a top notch artist, joker and all round nice guy. From Ireland, he specializes in Equine, Canine, Cervidae, Bovine, Avian… no, not a Harry Potter spell…but what ya’ll find!

*****

You can find more great tips on Fine Art Tips Facebook Fan Page, on Twitter, Google Plus and on Pinterest. Be sure and check out and my fine art prints and notecards on Fine Art America.  Or see my art on my website,  LoriMcNee.com.  ~Lori