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.

Poor Bard Gets Ugly

The good news is that I was able to finish the underpainting stage of Bard's portrait yesterday. The bad news is that it's in the Ugly stage, as we artists call it. Every work of art seems to go through this stage at some point in its creation, so I'm not too concerned.

I did have some problems, however, getting the paint to go on the canvas smoothly. It just wouldn't happen, and I don't remember having that problem with the Belgian painting. But, then again, I did that underpainting so long ago that it's nothing more than a dim memory. This stage will be covered over with layers of paint, and the roughness will disappear as the layers build up, resulting in a glossy coated look for our boy, The Peppermint Kid.

And now that Spring is here and the horses are pretty well shed out, I can always run out to the barn with the painting if I need to check something, like accurate coat color. That could be risky, though, since no doubt his pasture mate, Cory, will be right in my face with nose to the canvas checking it out. And Bard will be looking for peppermints!

On second thought, maybe it would be safer to take a few tubes of paint or colored pencils and just do a quick sketch from outside the fence. Yeah, that'll work!

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".