Sudan, Palomino Horse Painting

 

"Sudan" 24x24 inch oil painting

While I'm toiling away preparing tax stuff to send to the accountant, I've decided to share some of my older artwork and portrait work with you and share the stories behind them; good, bad and downright ugly. It should be fun. 

First up in the spotlight is "Sudan", one of the last commissioned portraits I accepted. Sudan was a nice looking palomino Arabian Quarter Horse cross gelding. His owner wanted me to depict him in his summer and winter coats since he turned much lighter in his winter woollies.

Although I got to see him in person, I didn't have my camera with me and had to rely on photos provided by the client; almost always a challenge. I was downstate visiting my elderly parents and didn't have the camera with me at the time.  

The most challenging part of the portrait was selecting the photos that were the best AND which worked together the best. Once I had the composition worked out, the painting went rather smoothly. It was delivered to the client on another downstate visit to my parents. 

 "Sudan" might not be up to my current painting standards, but it was one of my best at the time and for that deserves a bit of recognition. 

I hope you enjoy him, and thanks for stopping by. 

"Echo", a Horse Drawing

"Echo" a Quarter Horse Mare

Drawing from the photograph

I saw a woolly caterpillar in the barn aisle the other day, and that is a sure sign that Fall is here and winter is on its way. 

Usually, Fall is very busy at our house as we batten down the hatches preparing for the snow and cold ahead: taking water craft out of the water for winter storage and cleaning out the flower beds, preparing for the holidays and other sundry things. This year is no exception and is shaping up to be even busier than normal after what was a busy summer. 

For one thing, we took our cat, Molly, downstate to a cat clinic for radiation treatment for hyperthyroidism. She has been on medication for two years, but it was no longer working. It has been traumatic for both us and poor Molly since she had to stay at the clinic for four days and is now in quarantine at home for a week. The treatment itself is very safe, but she was stressed to the max just being taken away from home and "abandoned" by her people and now isolated from all of us in her room alone. She came home very thin and totally exhausted but is now doing fine if not very lonely. 

In spite of the hubbub, I started a new drawing the other day. Not a sketch but an honest to goodness drawing of a Quarter Horse mare that I wanted to finish in colored pencil. I will probably also use the drawing for an oil or pastel painting of this mare and her foal, a painting that I've long wanted to do. 

The drawing was done freehand using the photograph above. I didn't do any measurements to start with, and when it was done, I found some problems. Hunting up my calipers or dividers or whatever you call the thing, I used that to measure the proportions of that particular horse, using the head as the basic measurement by which all others were compared. One head equals the length of the neck and also the width of the barrel and the length of the forelegs to the fetlocks and so on. I traced the original drawing onto a sheet of tracing paper, making some adjustments as I went. This is just the first tracing. I will do another over the top of this one because there are still several adjustments to be made. 

When I'm satisfied with the drawing, I'll trace it onto a good sheet of paper and finish it with colored pencil. That can serve as my color study for the larger oil painting. For that I will add a foal and a background. The foal photo I'd like to use has lighting opposite to what is in the photo of Echo, and I'll have to change it to match the mare by doing some sketches and a value study before proceeding to the painting. 

It feels very good to be tackling a brand new image with challenges to overcome and having the confidence to do it. 

Echo was a former ranch horse who became a broodmare and a trail horse. She is still very much missed by her family. This will be her tribute. 

"Scotch Bar Lochinvar"

My horse, Scottie

My horse, Scottie, turned thirty a few days ago. That is a remarkable achievement for a horse, and considering how gravely ill Scottie was just two and a half years ago, it is doubly remarkable. 

The picture above is one I took when Scottie was almost five. It has always been one of my favorites. In fact, I created a drawing based on it and then had limited edition reproductions made of that. See below. 

"Scotch Bar Lochinvar" pencil drawing of a horse

After a thirty year absence from the horse world, I started taking riding lessons in my forties and bought Scottie a short six weeks later. The first day walking into that horse barn, I had such a strong feeling of coming home that I knew right then and there that I was meant to be in that world and vowed never to abandon it again. The sights, sounds and smells of that barn and the horses were all familiar, burned into my psyche from the years spent in barns as a youngster and a deep passion for horses for as far back as I can remember. 

At that time I was a middle aged woman who was trying to conquer my fear of riding and a life long shame of being what I considered then to be a coward. It was a huge step for me; a make it or break it one. If it didn't work out, I would have lost nothing, but if it did I had the world to gain. I was lucky to find the perfect trainer to take me on that journey, one who understood my fears and guided me gently along the way with no admonishments to Cowboy Up or Just Do It. That was the last thing I needed to be told. 

Scottie, it turned out, was my lesson horse. Scottie was a four year old, slightly green, unregistered Quarter Horse (which is a story in itself). But his temperament was such that he was being used for lessons by the trainer. He was a perfect match for me, and as it turned out, he was for sale!

I made a deal with my husband, and Scottie was mine! Little did my husband realize the consequences of his wife's passion, but he has been supportive all through the years.

Buying Scottie was just the beginning of immersion into the world of horses, and it led to my first ever horse portrait and the beginning of my career as an equine artist. So, in a big way I owe it all to Scottie and my trainer, Lisa, who helped me overcome my fears; not completely but enough to live in the horse world as an owner/rider and to meld my two life passions: horses and art. 

Buried Treasure; Two Old Horse Drawings

"Jesse Darkstar" Appaloosa Horse Drawing

In the process of going through old art records today I came across two preliminary drawings that I did for portraits way back in 2001 and couldn’t help but think, “Gee, these are better than I remember them being!”. 

It was my custom to do a value study for a color portrait before beginning the final portrait. The purposes were several. First off, the preliminary drawing gave me a chance to see how the line drawing would look when rendered as a three dimensional object. Next, it would reveal any awkwardness or disproportions that might not be evident in the line drawing. Thirdly, it would establish the values in the image. And, finally, it was emailed to the client for either approval or needed changes. 

At top is the preliminary drawing for a portrait of Jesse Darkstar, a blue roan Appaloosa. I had to change some leg positions and other things from the reference photos, and the drawing helped to be assured that the image worked over all. Below is the final pastel portrait. 

"Jesse Darkstar"  Pastel Horse Painting

This next drawing is of King, a thirty year old Quarter Horse who was still being ridden and shown. This drawing is softer than the first because it was done on layout paper rather than drawing paper, and layout paper has a smoother surface. 

"King" Quarter Horse Pencil Drawing

And finally, here’s the final pastel portrait of King. 

"King" Quarter Horse Pastel Painting

I did a little work on the painting of Glory earlier in the week to enlarge her eye. But at the moment the eye is more than a little creepy looking, so  I’ll wait to show you progress on that until it’s in a more acceptable state. 

Glory Gets a Facelift

"Tribute To Glory" 12"x12" palomino horse oil painting

This past week I moved the painting of Glory, the Quarter Horse mare, to the easel and resumed work on her. 

Quite a while ago I got her to a certain point, realized that she had a problem, was stumped how to proceed and set her aside. After months of staring at the painting on the sudio wall, I had an epiphany regarding how to fix her problems. The solution came to me out of the blue, so to speak, and then I couldn’t wait to get started on her again.  

The main problem with Glory’s painting was that I had drawn the muzzle too small. It needed to be corrected before anything else. My original intent was to do this oil painting in thin layers in order to achieve the luminous light in the shadow areas that I saw in the photograph. But in order to correct the muzzle, it was necessary to proceed with a heavier application of paint. 

I’ll spare you all the step by step details of Glory’s “facelift” and just hit a few of the major issues from which the painting was suffering. In addition to the too small muzzle, the far eye orbit needed to be lowered and her hind end reduced and resculptured. I’ve also been  refining and correcting the highlights and shadows in her face; pretty much all of it except her ample cheek. 

One of the things that I liked about Glory was that she had a slight dish face that wasn’t evident in the painting. I corrected that, too. 

Here is how Glory looked before I began the corrections. 

And here is the progress so far. 

 

Below is a photo of my usual working method at the easel. Just next to the painting is the photo of Glory that I took over 20 years ago. I liked it immediately and wanted to paint it some day. Hanging to the left is a larger version of it which I had scanned into the computer and lightened in Photoshop to give more light and detail in the shadow areas. The small photo has more accurate color which is why it’s next to the painting. 

That’s all for today. Time to get back into the studio and work on another painting. 

The Peppermint Kid Finished at Last!

Happy New Year Everyone! (that is the two or three of you who actually read this blog). And let me thank you for coming to visit and sharing your comments over this past year. I really do appreciate your interest.

We had a very white Christmas this year because it's been snowing almost daily since mid November. Our kids made it up here for the holiday and back home again while dodging the bad storms, and we had a nice family time, lots of goodies to eat and many laughs.

I'm now back to thinking Art again.

On the day that we lost our Little Annie, I busied myself as much as possible and was able to put the finishing touches on Bard's portrait and sign it. What I should have felt was great elation, but all I could muster was a sigh of relief. 

After the hubbub of Christmas died down and the "kids" went back to their respective homes, I was able to get a good photo of Bard (in spite of non stop dreary days!) and then proceeded to clean up the image and do some test prints. The finished portrait has now been added to my website, and I'm contemplating offering his image as a limited edition reproduction.

Today I put things away in the studio and put The Green Team back on the easel. I'm anxious to get busy with this painting, another one that's gotten long in the tooth while waiting for completion. It would be really nice to start something new as well, but I haven't decided what yet. Possibly a fox hunting scene? A pony image? Or, perhaps a winter scene would be appropriate for this time of year.

I must remember to take my camera to the barn when I go tomorrow. Maybe with some urging, the two youngsters can be induced to provide some action. That would be fun!

Bard - Scottie To The Rescue

As I said last time, I didn't have a good reference for Bard and ran into trouble modeling his shoulder. After going through my horse's photo album (he has his own, just like my kids), I found one good photo with sunlight coming from the correct position and was able to use it to help me place the highlights and shadows on Bard's shoulder and neck. It even shows Scottie with his head turned similar to Bard's pose. I still ran into trouble, though, since Scottie's shoulder is more lean than Bard's. After several phone interruptions and one angering phone call in particular, I got disgusted, wiped off all I'd done to that point, and started over. The second attempt went better and soon Bard had a believable shoulder, complete with highlights.


I finished up for the day by adjusting the neck, painting in the mane and adding more highlight to the head and then called it a night. All that's left to do now is repaint the background, which I'll do today. Then I can put it aside to dry, sign it and wait until it's dry enough to varnish.

Thanksgiving will be so much more pleasant knowing that Bard is at long last finished and can go to his owner next month.

Click on Bard's image to see it on my website. The other image is the reference I used of my horse Scottie. That's my daughter holding him.

A Whole Lotta Tweaking Going On!

So much for best laid plans.

Despite my best intentions, and because of some necessary business phone calls, I was not able to progress to Bard's neck and shoulder today. However, I did spend the whole painting time tweaking here and there, correcting and adding more highlights and also his forelock. The good news is that I'm calling the head finished. I've reached that point where my artist intuition tells me that if I tweak anymore, I'll just muck things up.

I'm quite disappointed that I wasn't able to get farther today, but the hardest part is at least done, and next week I'll have plenty of time to continue. I was momentarily tempted to just keep painting until late evening, but that would have meant postponing the packing until tomorrow and that would have delayed my departure for Atlanta until way too late. Besides, it's not a good idea to paint when tired. It can be decidedly counter productive. So, Bard will just have to wait until next week.

You should be able to see a bigger difference today. Adding the forelock changed his look quite a bit. His forelock always seems to be a bit disheveled, so that's how I painted it.

Again, you can click on the image above to see a nice large version on my website.

The Peppermint Kid Again

Last week was one of those weeks when you meet yourself coming and going.

I gathered together note cards and prints to take to the gallery, wrapped and inventoried them and rushed up there just before closing time on Thursday so that she would have them for the weekend. I did get another print colored but didn't have time to scan it, so you'll just have to wait until I color another one to see how they look. It did look nice, and I hope it sells - and quickly, too!

Attempts to print more business cards were nothing short of frustrating and were not successful. The images in the new software were all pixelly, so I gave up on that until later.

On another day, I had my teeth cleaned, got my overdue allergy shots and took the board check to the barn. No visit or grooming this time since I was in good clothes, didn't have my knee brace on, and the horses were wayyyy at the far end of the pasture and down the steep hill.

Tuesday was taken up with standing in line to vote and watching the election coverage and returns. "We" won, but really the whole country won because now we can go forward under new leadership and new ideas.

Did I mention a haircut fit in somewhere?

There were also last minute preparations for the meeting with our financial guru, laundry, groceries and preparations for our trip to Ann Arbor to see my mother in the nursing home and our daughter who has a new job. After the financial meeting on Friday, we said good bye to the cats and headed south. Fortunately, we had good driving and a good visit because on Sunday it started snowing. Monday morning we awoke to snow on the ground, our first of the season, and the definite look and feel of winter in the air.

Putting all that behind me, I got back to work on Bard, aka The Peppermint Kid, yesterday and made some progress. He may not look very different, but take my word for it; the red is toned down. I found a recipe for "his" color in a book and found that it worked quite well. By mixing cadmium orange and viridian green, I got a nice yellowish brown tone. By adding in some cadmium yellow light and raw umber and white, I had all the highlights and shadows I needed and managed to redo his face by bedtime. I remodelled parts of his profile, made the eye smaller and the cheek fuller and think that he now looks more like the real version. His head still needs more work, and I'd like to finish his eye today before proceeding to the neck.

Over all, I'm pleased with the progress and hope to finish Bard up this week or next at the latest.

Return of The Peppermint Kid

Now that the book work is again caught up, I'm getting back to work on Bard's portrait.

A few weeks ago, you may remember, that I painted the background in greens, blues and yellows. After living with it a while, I realized that the background color was too intense and was competing with the horse for attention. What to do?? Remembering that the way to dull down a color is to mix some of its opposite into it, I decided to use cadmium orange to do the job. The opposite of green on the color wheel is red, but I didn't want to turn the green any darker and thought that orange might be a good compromise. It worked like a charm! After painting Cad orange over the whole background, I took a rag and wiped off all but a very thin coating. Voila! The background was put in its place, and Bard was again the center of attention as he should be.

Yesterday I began the main layer of color on Bard and managed to finish his face except for his eye. Bard is a lighter sorrel than my horse, Scottie, and I tried not to get him too red since I knew that Scottie's color would be very much in my mind. Unfortunately, I think I did anyway. My husband had taken the laptop with him for the weekend, so I couldn't set it up next to the easel while I painted. Instead, I had to run back and forth between the big computer down the hall and the painting, looking for details and the correct color. Not the best of working situations by any means, so next time I'll print out a few of the photos to use at the easel if I don't have the laptop to use.

As usually happens to all us artists, today I can see several changes and corrections to be made, so after this layer of paint is dry enough, I'll go back and make all the corrections and make Bard's head less red by glazing some Naples Yellow over it. That should do the job.

In the meantime, you can see that his head now looks more substantial than the rest of him as the paint is built up. I'll move on to his neck and shoulder for now and hope I can match the two areas later.

Bard has been in the works for a very long time now, and I'm anxious to get him finished up and to his owner before another holiday rolls around.

On another subject, I cannot let this day go by without recalling that it was 19 years ago today that I bought Scottie, my second and most beloved horse. He was a dream come true and came along at just the right time in my life to help pull me out of a very dark time. I truly owe him my life, and he has brought untold happiness to me ever since.

Bard Goes Green

When I pulled out the time sheet for Bard's portrait, I was shocked to see that it's been three months since I last gave him any attention. It had been my intent to work on him at the same time as the Mural Mosaic panel, but the panel paints dried so fast that I was able to work on it every day. With a short deadline, I just kept going until the panel was done.

So, here is Bard with a fresh new background. Using bristle brushes, I tried to keep the brush strokes loose and mixed some of the pigments on the canvas for a varied, leaf-like look. Bard just LOVES to go trail riding, and I'd like to give the background the look of the deep woods that we ride in where he loves to go.

The hues are a little more intense than I'd planned, and since I managed to scrape some paint off with a finger nail this morning, I'll do another layer after I work on Bard again. If I'd been back more in Painting Brain, I would have added a touch of cadmium orange to the greens to dull them down a little for a more realistic look, but I can do that in the next go round. I was also a little concerned that the values might be too close, but when I walked into the darkened studio last night, Bard stood out from the background just fine.

I must say that after all the pondering I've done about what to do with his background, I like this a lot. And after all the gardening, it's good to be painting again.

Background Issues

For a while now I've been pondering what to do with the background for Bard's portrait. Then it occurred to me to resort to the digital world and try different approaches in Photoshop. Above you see the results of three different possibilities. Since I have a new version of Photoshop and don't know it very well yet, I wasn't able to blend the different shades and tints very well which I would do in the real version. At the moment I'm leaning toward the green version. Since Bard lives in northern Michigan which is known for its lush greenery, that seems appropriate.

Or, maybe the blue.... Hmmm....

Photoshop is a wonderful tool for us artists and allows us so many ways to compose our artwork before we actually DO the artwork. By using the layers tool, one can move elements around the composition and see what fits best where. By using the colors palette, one can change colors just as easily. And that's just scratching the surface of what this powerful program can do.

I got my first version of Photoshop many years ago when it came bundled with my first scanner and have upgraded a few times over the years. I was perfectly happy with PS 5.5 until my hard drive died over a year ago when I upgraded from OS 9 to OS 10 Tiger and 5.5 wouldn't work any longer. So, that meant another upgrade. PS CS2 has so many more bells and whistles and changes in the way you do things that I haven't had nor taken the time to learn it all over again. If you learn one new thing at a time, it isn't complicated, and once you've played with what you can do in Photoshop, you'll never want to go without it again.

Things like trying different back ground colors for your current painting. Bard will be much brighter and "full of life" in the final painting, but these little digital sketches give me a good idea of what choices will work best without going to the trouble of laying on paint, deciding it won't work and then having to wipe it all off and try another.

I love Photoshop!

Bard The Beautiful

Well, I couldn't very well leave poor Bard in that ugly stage for very long, so here you see him with his first coat of "real" color, or "local color" as we artists say. Where that phrase came from I have no idea. It doesn't seem to make sense in this day and age, but maybe it did decades or centuries ago.

At any rate, having learned my lesson from the last painting session on the Belgian painting, I started out by oiling out the canvas with linseed oil and then wiping off as much as I could, leaving just a thin coating. The paint went on much more smoothly this time, and I progressed in good time, spending five hours on Bard yesterday to get to this point. I was so happy to have spent so much time doing the value study and then the underpainting because both served as guides as I added the color, highlights and shadows. Now Bard will be set aside to dry for at least a week while I study him some more and plan how to proceed and what changes to make in the next layer of color.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to change and head for the barn to ride my own red horse before the thunderstorms hit that are predicted for today.

Back To The Bard

Yesterday I couldn't help myself and did work a little more on the apple blossoms painting to correct a couple of things that were still bothering me. Now I'm satisfied with it and even more satisfied that I was able to take a sharper photo of it. If you go back to the last blog entry and click on the thumbnail, you'll see the finally finished version in sharper detail and better color. Even so, there is much more detail in those blossoms than you can see here. It's one of those that has to be seen in person to fully appreciate.

So, today my art project du jour was getting back to Bard's portrait. Several days ago I toned a new canvas, and since it was dry enough to work on, I traced the image onto the canvas and then went over the lines with some paint to make sure that they don't get rubbed off or smudged. It was a small but important step. On Monday I'll do the value under painting that will be the backbone, so to speak, of the painting, and I will use my drawing as a guide for where all the lights and darks go. This is absolutely critical in the process of making the painting look like Bard and not just an oil painting of any Quarter Horse.

Tomorrow I need to work on filing those insurance papers because the accountant will be calling on Monday to discuss our financial situation. That means switching from right brain mode to left brain mode.

Bah! Humbug!

The Tweaking Stage

Bard has now gone through the tweaking stage as every work of art does. You think it's done and then you see little things that need changing. The tweaking stage could last forever if you don't put your foot down at some point and say, "Stop! Enough is enough. It's as good as it needs to be."

There also comes a point when you have to put the reference photos aside and ask yourself, "Now what does it need, artistically?" Maybe something in a reference photo just doesn't look right in the artwork or isn't working compositionally. That was another step I took today. I set aside the photos and went with what I know and what gave Bard more roundness and form. 

You may not be able to see any difference from the former version because the changes were mostly subtle. I did darken the inside of his ears, added more shading on his cheek and lower neck and reshaped his shoulder among other things. And, I'm calling it good unless my client requests any changes.

I did start back to work on an old drawing also today, but it isn't far enough along to show you yet. That's just a little tease to get you curious and coming back. It's a much larger pencil drawing of a dressage horse and rider. 

The Peppermint Kid

I've been working on Bard for the past two days and think I have him finished for now. Knowing the artist in me, I'll probably fool around a little more with this value study before proceeding to the painting. 

You should see a big difference in the larger image. I reworked his face again yesterday, using the laptop computer next to the drawing table, and that was a big help since I could access the reference photos without having to run between the studio and the computer room. His neck has been finished also giving him that unmistakable Quarter Horse look. 

Bard has tiny ears, a lovely head and just loves peppermints. His owner specifically wanted me to include that one unruly lock of mane which always falls to the wrong side of his neck. I'm really pleased to be able to progress to the painting stage next and finish the tribute that this horse deserves. 

Maybe I should title this painting "The Peppermint Kid". 

A Stormy Day in the Studio

Today was a perfect day to stay home and get something accomplished. We've been under a winter storm warning since last night when temperatures dropped from 44 degrees to a low of 7 this morning. The wind howled all night and continues to do so today although we aren't getting much snow. I love stormy days in winter and the cozy warmth of the house, knowing that my horse is safe and also warm in the barn where I board him.

So, today after washing some really grimy saddle pads in the laundry tub, I got back to work on the portrait of Bard. I thought it was going to be an easy portrait, but it hasn't turned out that way. After tracing the line drawing onto some drawing paper, I began the shading process and immediately things went south. Bard didn't look like Bard anymore! How could that be? So today I studied and studied all the reference photos, made a change here and another there and gradually Bard reappeared in the image. 

When you're doing a portrait and trying to get an exact likeness, a very small change can make a big difference. My challenge in doing this value study is to keep the light source consistent at the same time I remain faithful to Bard's facial features. He has a typical Quarter Horse head but it's also on the lean side. Getting the shadows and highlights in exactly the right places is very important to getting a good likeness. Since I don't have a reference photo in sunlight from exactly the same angle as the pose my client wanted me to use, this has been a real mental exercise.

Above you can see how far I've gotten up to today. The photo isn't very good because I neglected to check the camera settings and shot it at a slight angle, but it will have to do until the next update. Click on the thumbnail to see the larger image on my website (if I can figure out how to do that).

Good Intentions

Well, so much for good intentions.

Somehow, 2007 slipped by without my achieving what I had hoped, especially spending time in the studio. There were many reasons: the yard and garden took over much of my time over the summer, I had to return to physical therapy with a shoulder and neck problem in the Fall, and I finally HAD to spend time doing the income taxes for 2006.

The most aggravating delay, however, was caused by signing with a new licensing agent in September. She made big promises of success for my art in licensing but then failed to provide me with the information I needed to provide her with images. After three months of trying to pin her down, she cancelled the contract declaring that I'd failed to provide her with enough suitable images! So, there went three months of effort on my part and another lesson learned. Next time I'll ask more questions and make sure that the person actually knows something about the equine art market before I sign on the dotted line.

And now, here it is January again; the beginning of a new year, and I have made new resolutions to do much better this year. We'll see how it goes.

I did manage to get started on one of the two portraits I had on deck last Spring. This is only the preliminary drawing, but it took a lot to get to this point. The photo that the client sent me to work from was taken in shade so was very flat. It was also very small, but the pose was good. Over the summer I managed a photo shoot of Bard in sunlight, but the photos contained a lot of distortion. So, it turned out, did the photo from the client. After many revisions, I managed to get an accurate version that the client is happy with. So, here is Conclusive Bard, a very sweet Quarter Horse who loves to go for trail rides.



The next step is to do a value study before beginning the painting, which is very important since the reference photo is totally flat in values. I promise to have it for you to view by next weekend.