Oil Pastel Draft Horse WIP
From Concept to Creation
This oil pastel, is as of yet, un-named. I am considering a couple of things, but nothing is firm. The size is currently 16×23.
I don’t think I realized just how much my artwork was influenced by compositional elements, until I started my artist journal, followed by the magazine articles and now the blog. I have always been sort of a visceral artist. I never really devoted great deals of thought, about how and why I do what I do. But since I have been keeping a constant written commentary about my artwork and how it’s created, I have really learned a lot about myself and my work.
Composition
It is the simple looking portraits that rely heavily on composition to make them interesting. It becomes about form and line, pattern and negative space.
The real desire for doing this painting was (as always) the horse. I love him. He is part of a matched team of Percherons that I had seen at two different events last summer. This guy in particular is stunning. I followed him around like a groupie, madly snapping pictures. His expressive eye and head shape are simply gorgeous. The reference photos below, are from both events. These are my main photo references for this painting. But I have around 20 others on my drafting table to look at for various reasons. Including another team that I photographed 15 some odd years ago, at a pull in South Dakota.
I could say putting him in front of a steel trailer, was totally a commentary on the draft horse’s usefulness in todays society, as most drafts aren’t really workers anymore. But in truth, I liked the compositional elements of the geometric shapes, set against his soft curves. I chose a roached mane (shaved close to the neck) because it strengthened the vision of that iconic working horse. And I will put him against the steel trailer (actually, it is probably aluminum) because of the symbolism it represents.
Subtle Differences
I spent around 20 hours draw time on him. This would seem to me a good argument for projecting. That being said, I made several small changes that I would not have been able to do, unless I had the ability to draw what I see. So please, learn to draw first, then project when necessary.
Most of the draw time was spent on the harness, which always takes a huge amount of time to get right. Also, I changed my mind in-process and had to re-draw the collar area. At first, my drawing didn’t have the reins draped over the hames of the collar. I thought it made the image too complex. But once I decided to removed the bridle and to roach the mane, suddenly it needed them there to add interest. I also changed the harness from a modern BioThane to a leather. I just love a horse that looks like it works for a living.
Quick Tip
I cannot draw a horse facing left, from a photo of a horse facing right. A person who is more photoshop loving than I, could just scan it in, flip the image, print it out and tah da! But being more lazy than that, I just held the photo face up to my table light, and drew from the ghost image on the back. All I really needed was the basic shapes. I have used my lamps to reverse the image many times. Extremely quick and quite effective.
Tags: oil pastels, technique, WIP