WALKTHROUGH: Stag from ‘The Victor’
EDITING ARIA FROM 2025: I apologize for how small the images in this walkthrough are. When it was first created on my old Patreon, you could right-click to view them larger but that was no longer the case when I retrieved them for this re-upload. I hope it’s still helpful for some despite the issue! <3
Hello Moonbeams,
I finished up this stag piece last week and took quite a few photos of the stag and his unfortunate opponent in process. If you would prefer to see detailed PDF files, similar to some of the other full painting PDFs I have made but focusing in on a specific detail such as the character, let me know and I can try to go that route for some future posts!
Please right click to view the images larger
Surface: Gessobaord with two coats of Daniel Smith titanium white watercolor ground and one coat of QoR watercolor ground.
Brushes: Hwahong flat brushes sizes 1, 2, Hwahong round brush size 1 and Princeton Velvetouch round brush size 20/0 (my detail brush of choice)
Paint: For the black parts of the stag (face and deep shadows) I used my Shadow Shade mixture of Daniel Smith Prussian Blue, Daniel Smith Burgundy Yellow Ochre, Daniel Smith Carbazole violet.
For the severed head and white markings I used small touches of Daniel Smith ochre yellow, Daniel Smith carbazole violet, Daniel Smith Manganese Blue, Daniel Smith Phthalo Green.
The blood and gore were Daniel Smith Carmine and Bright Red.
The main stag's brown body was painted with Daniel Smith Ochre Yellow, Daniel Smith Carbazole Violet, and Daniel Smith Mangense Blue and Phthalo Blue for some of the cool highlights.
I also used Koi white watercolor for any small white highlights and Daniel Smith Titanium White Watercolour ground.
This piece started as a traditional sketch I think in 2019 or so, of the stag and was recently given more life as a full piece. These are my colour and value studies which, as is often the case, are a bit darker in value than the final work.
✦ I started by painting and finishing off the background for this piece. I sometimes prefer to leave the character for last so that I A: Get to enjoy one of my favourite parts at the end and B: Can get an idea of what the environment will look like and help build the character to it.
✦ Once I had the background finished, I used a bit of thinned out ochre yellow and violet to paint over the faded lines of the anatomy. Something I really recommend doing at the beginning of the piece before the pencil lines have a chance to fade as much as mine do from running my hand over them during the rest of the process!
I then began roughing in the fun, fuzzy neck using my size 1 flat brush. I love this brush because it is very old and frayed and works so well for getting the basic fur textures. I used my shadow shade, yellow ochre and violet for the fur.
As I got the first rough layers down, I took an old, equally fluffy and frayed size 1 brush and added some details, further defining fur direction and deepening shadows.
While I sometimes add an overall few washes to my entire character before doing any rough detail, I had the urge to paint this stag in sections for some reason (I think my muse just gets bored and wants to try different things sometimes!) I continued to rough in different sections of the body, adding loose details as I went along.
I did not attempt to fully finish single sections but rather left them in a somewhat loose state until I had painted the entire character.
I continue to slightly refine some of the first sections I had painted. Here, I used my size 1 flat brush to blend and blur some of the fur on the neck. I wanted to get an idea of how it would look before moving on. I also began to paint more of the chest and front legs.
The legs themselves were really fun. Actually I had a blast on this entire character! I really enjoy painting animals so much I cannot express 😭 I put down layers of ochre yellow, violet, and shadow shade adding a bit of my Manganese blue and phthalo green mixture to create some cool highlights in the shadows that would help separate that right front leg, from the things behind it.
Once the front half of the stag was all roughed in, I began moving down the body painting in the different muscles and adding various gradients of colour.
At this rate, for some reason, I began to play with adding a few more rough details to the neck which tells me I was probably daydreaming too much and bouncing around the piece instead of finishing that back left leg before moving to the detail phase!
Eventually, I finished off the back leg and began to approach the detail phase. I pulled out one of my dried deer legs (naturally deceased gifts I was given by a good friend) and used it for some reference. There is nothing like having some 3D models in studio for art making!
I ended up going much darker on the legs and belly as the stag felt a bit flat. My good friend Sean Price (also an amazing artist) pointed out that going darker would definitely help which I wholeheartedly agree on! Going darker, especially as a watercolourist, often ends up being a good idea.
Since I grew up around horses, I often feel inspired by the shifting, almost pearlescent look of their groomed, Summer coats and end up channeling it in other creatures. Although this stag is somewhat of a standard brown colour, I wanted to give him a few unique attributes such as the dappled butt that mimics an Appaloosa horse's markings. My partner said it was their favourite butt in terms of my work. I think I quite enjoy painting butts and put extra love into them! I definitely want to give this one a good firm pat.
I very often save the face for last and in this case I did both faces last. I used mainly my shadow shade with highlights of the other colours for this face.
I wanted to keep the expression of shock and fear on the stag's face without losing the semi-realistic feel. Painting animal expression is really fun which is why I admire the animal pieces by master artists Aaron Blaise and Silly Beast
Once the face was done I added a bit more personality to the neck fur. I used my flat brush to lift out more textures and then used my frayed size 1 brush to put in some hair details because its heavily forked nature allowed it to lay down multiple fur strands at once.
For the pale stag head, I painted it in using the same techniques I had on the darker stag. Painting the gore threw me for a bit of a loop. I was inspired to paint this piece because of the many photos I have seen of deer with other deer's heads caught in their antlers. In many of those photos, the other head has long dried and begun to decay and I wanted more of a "fresh" head. Looking at quite a few rather intense photos of wild animals doing what they do, I gathered that severed heads have SO many varied textures and colours and ended up piecing something not entirely realistic together simply because I liked the look of it.
The head just felt a bit lacking once done or somehow stiff. My partner suggested I paint some of the blood smoke I occasionally use in my work and I really loved how it pulled things together.
There are several rather visceral pieces I have had planned but I always feel that there is a real balance and art to gore. Although every artist may choose to interpret it differently, I felt this particular piece needed a careful balance. To much blood would make the piece feel forced, too little would make the severity of the situation unclear. In the end, I am pleased with the balance it struck.
Thank you so much for reading this far! I hope this walkthrough was helpful to you in your own work ♡
~Aria ☾
