“Soul” Horse Painting Completed
Well almost.
I’m down to the tweaking stage anyway.
Soul
Water soluble pencil on Suede Board
13″ x 19 1/2″
“It is not so much about whether horses have a soul, as it is that horses are soul.”
I’m still playing with the forelock but I’m getting close. The problem with Chicory is he is a different color at any given moment. He is officially (as in registered as) a red dun. His mane is made up of every color hair imaginable but overall will look black or chestnut or occasionally sorrel depending on the lighting. As a result my painting’s forelock has undergone all of those color transformations as well. I am not quite settled in my color yet.
The other big change from the last work in progress shot was I took an inch off the top of the painting. His eyes were just a little too close to center. I like the balance I got from cropping it.
Even though I am running out of time before my first art event of the season, (like in 2 weeks) I’m looking forward to starting something new. Probably an oil pastel and possibly something that goes “moo.”
Interesting about all of the color variations. It seems like you are capturing them in the forelock/mane. This is really looking great. Interesting to see the ten year contrast. Angela
Thanks Angela, believe it or not I am still puttering around with it. I added more forelock on the left and have begun darkening it again. (sigh) maybe I just need to set it aside for awhile.
I think the forelock is richer for all of your changes. This is looking great! Can’t wait to see you do something in oil pastels of course, but this one has been so wonderful to follow in detail. Thanks for posting so many stages.
Your paintings are an inspiration to me. We just moved to Arkansas and yesterday I had a scenic drive on the way to the beer store where I saw sheep, cows and horses in fields … had never seen sheep that looked like their front ends got dipped in ink before, they were trippy! So I think that now I’ll be able to put some of this study to good use, maybe even this summer I’ll get out with something to draw with and my camera.
I would never have thought of watercolor pencils on velour, but it’s come out so beautiful. I might try it, have some velour boards cut to smallish pieces that I could experiment with.