ACEO - Elephant

This is my first ACEO painting of an elephant. I used a reference photo from

http://picsdesktop.com/Wild-Animals/1024x768_www.PicsDesktop.com_310.jpg.htm
I cropped the original image to show a portrait of an elephant. I used orange and yellow color for background to create the effect of a warm and dry atmosphere. The skin color tone of the elephant is shifted toward the red side to create an analogous color harmony with the background. The elephant brighter skin color and the shadow under its head gave the viewer the impression of the elephant under the hot blistering sun.The realistic detail of the rough-textured skin fold also gave the elephant a scorch exhausted and thirsty look.