It is 24 x 24 cm pastel on canson paper. I enjoyed doing it, though it was a challenge to find the colours behind the black!
The dog is Liebe, a pedigree Munsterlander.
This is only the second acrylic painting I have done in my life, so I shouldn't really complain, but this just doesn't seem to be working for me.
I guess I will get round to finishing it eventually, but it has had so many problems that for the moment I think I just need to put it aside for a while. I think the main problem is that the canvas is the wrong shape and so the horse looks like he is falling out of the picture.
Well, there are exciting times ahead for me towards the beginning of next week. On 13th October I have two paintings up for auction in the States. It is to raise money for the Churchill Animal Protection Society http://www.capsnv.org It will be the first time any of my paintings have been up for auction and I'm interested to know how they do.
The one the left is a second version of a painting I did previously of Mephisto. It is similar to the previous painting, but the colours are quite different. The one on the right is a painting of a horse called Aladin. They are both mixed media paintings - watercolour and pastel.
The 15th October marks the start of the "Interpretations" exhibition on the website of the Equine Art Guild http://www.equineartguild.com The two paintings I have entered for that exhibition are on a previous post so I won't bother to insert them here. This marks the first time that my paintings have gone on public show!
Well, I think this is largely finished now. Not alot has changed but I finished the cheek and darkened the mane. On the whole I'm fairly happy with it.
Not a whole lot new to show. I've been working on the hollow areas around the eye, and am taking a top down approach to this. There are some really tricky folds around the eye, but it is coming along slowly. Ice is a relatively old horse and as horses get older their eyes become more "sunken" into the skull. This is what I am trying to portray with this painting of his eye - I also want to catch the kind gentle personality. Anyway, here is the update! Still more to do...
I started the pastel aceo of "eye of ice" today. I have so far just put in the basic shapes with colour which will form the background or underpainting for the final image. I started putting in some of the detail around the eye, but there is still a whole lot to do. I will post as I go along with this one. I'm working with 300g watercolour paper, and although it needs alot of working in for the colour to take, I am beginning to get used to it.
I have started a series of eye studies. The first is one of a horse called Safira. She is a very sad looking horse, and I especially like the sad expression in her eyes. This is an aceo card done in pastel.
The next one I am planning to do is of a horse called Ice. Because he is getting old his eyes are more sunken into his head, and it gives him an interesting look. I'll post more as I get it done. I am also planning to do this in pastel. Pastels for me are more like drawing than painting, but it is drawing in colour.
in acrylic. It was based on a sketch I did of Doc from the reference as I sat bored one evening watching TV. I liked the idea of him running through the wind, but how do you paint wind? I used modelling paste on the canvas first to create the idea of "flow" and then I painted over it. I tried to create Doc within this modern art style and used gold and bronze in the actual image of Doc. For me it was a little experimental. i haven't worked in acrylic before, but I quite liked the results, so I will definitely "play" some more in this medium.
The second is a pastel on velour paper of Monster. I was inspired by seeing Apassionata in Madrid with my daughter, and so I thought Monster would look good in the show, so I put Monster in the spotlig
ht and this is the result. If you want to see what the reference images are like, then it is best to check out the Equine Art Guild site in October when the "Interpretations" exhibition goes online.
Kathleen
hat I had bought as an impulse buy and started to draw one of the horses at the stables. His name was Ramases and he struck me as such an intelligent horse. My attempts to capture him were not very good, but I really enjoyed working with the pastels and it gave me heart to go on and learn to develop this medium.
hadn't drawn or painted since I was at school. I knew that I was finding my feet again and that it would take time and a great deal of practice. So that was the beginning.
The next few efforts gave me enough encouragement to continue. I drew oth
er horses from the stables. An old chestnut called "Gentille" who looked like a c
avalry horse and "Quixote" a dark, shaggy, heavy-built cob. and one of the foals. By now, I was changing how I thought about things. I was beginning to get itchy fingers wanting to do more than just pass the time on a Sunday afternoon. While I liked working with the oil pastels I wanted to try other things so I opted to try some watercolour painting. I had never really used watercolour except as a wash over some of the drawings I had done at school. My attempts with watercolour were not what I had hoped for I couldn't get the softness that I was looking for, and I couldn't control the colour but I was shocked to find out that people around me seemed to prefer the watercolours that I did rather than the pastels. Pastels felt more comfortable to me, but the reactions I got from people on the watercolours made me go back and try to come to terms with this medium. Little by little, I think I might get somewhere in the end.
So all in all, as you have seen, I am just getting started. However, it is my sincere hope that one day I will be able to call myself "an equine artist".
