In the Studio

The last couple of tweaks that I’d been doing weren’t really noticable on a small scale digital, so I haven’t bothered posting them, but here is the panel as of today. I think it’s done, or darn near close to it. It needs to sit and dry a few days anyway, so in that time, if something comes to mind that needs doing, I’ll fix it then. Otherwise, she is done!!

Be sure to visit the Le Cadeau Du Cheval - The Horse Gift” Mural Mosaic webpage here:
http://www.muralmosaic.com/Cadeau.html

Last night I spent more time developing the horse, it’s slowly getting there. His outside eye and side of face are still bothering me, so don’t worry, it will be corrected before I’m done. The paint got too wet to work with on it though (below that part that is) so I didn’t want to risk leaning on it to fine tune and smudge the paint on the lower part of the horse. (I need a maul stick!) I also couldn’t leave the clouds alone, they need a third dimension yet, I LOVE storm clouds and can’t wait to see our first thunderstorms of the season here. The weatherman keeps promising, but so far, hasn’t delivered any! *pouting* Anyhoo, here is the next installment….

Because I’m working in oils on this one, I can add as much or as little paint as I like to a layer, as long as it’s meant to be blended together. Seeing as I didn’t want the purple background paint to mix with the black horse’s paint, I had let the background dry before starting on the horse. But now that I have the horse started, I can go nuts on him as all his colors will blend together smoothly by the time I am done with him. Here’s this afternoon’s progress:

I have the beginnings of the horse now painted onto the panel. It took a few days for the purkle underpainting to dry, and now I’m ready to work on the horse! I’m working in oils for this project, a medium I haven’t worked in a whole lot yet, but am slowly building my confidence up in them. For this project, they are going on like butta’! I guess I just didn’t like working on canvas, the texture, blah yucky! Panels be smooth as a baby’s bottom, lets the paint glide on so easily and details can be nice and tight. Yep!! Here’s today’s installment…or rather, last night’s, but it was too dark to get a decent photo of it. This is just a rough in layer for the horse to establish his position in the painting, and some loose details. A LOT to do on his face, so don’t mind that.

I’ve been messin around with this panel in acrylics, and getting more and more frustrated at not being able to get a decent blend for the clouds, so said “screw it” and dug out the oils. LOL So I’ve painted over the whole surface now, in the purkle shades with stormy clouds. I hope to bring out a black horse from within the clouds, my little “storm chaser”.

But now I have to wait for this layer of paint to dry first. Dang, I knew there was a reason I don’t work in oils much!

Here is the panel before I painted it, color somewhat adjusted, there’s not much blue in it as there is purple/mauve and purple blue.

And my digital idea before I started painting…

And then where it is so far as of today, in oils….(I didn’t photograph the acrylic mess I had put down, ha! Although you can still see a bit of it through the oils where the sun rays are…that part sorta worked out for my benefit!

I am honored to be a participating artist in the upcoming “Le Cadeau Du Cheval - The Horse Gift” Mural Mosaic. To quote from their website: “Mural Mosaic is thrilled to have assembled some of the world’s finest equine artists together for this stunning mural project. Many of these artists have dedicated their artistic career to passionately focusing on the theme of equine art. The Mural Mosaic project is a very organic process. As each painting is completed the mural slowly comes to life. We encourage you to continually revisit the mural page and watch as the mural develops leading up to the unveiling in September of 2008.”

Be sure to keep an eye on their site for updates! MuralMosaic.com/Cadeau.html

For my part, I chose panel #164 - a one-tone purkle panel. (Yeah, that’s not a typo, I like to be goofy and say PURKLE for purple. hehehe) I envision a magnificent black stallion galloping headlong against a stormy backdrop sky. It will be titled “Storm Chaser”, after a personal passion of mine for storms and horses. Yep!

Here is the panel as it came to me:

Stay tuned as I post a work in progress as I begin painting on it!

Our annual Reflections of Nature wildlife art show is coming up next month and I thought I’d try my hand at preparing a piece that I hope to enter in the special purchase award competition featuring pronghorn big game animals. Being that I was in Yellowstone last fall taking a seminar with master artist Robert Bateman, and took numerous photos up close of pronghorn in various settings, I thought this was a great time to paint a scene from that wonderful trip.

So begins this journey. I took an 18″x24″ piece of 1/4″ hardboard, triple gessoed and sanded by myself, and began with a light wispy wash of the acrylics. Literally a wash. I brushed in the main dark areas, squirted the board with some fine misty water to make the colors flow loosely on the board. I rather liked how the paint handled and will have to bank this technique into my memory for later use in other paintings. The colors used at this point are just burnt umber, raw sienna, a little warm white and a wee bit of ultramarine blue mixed with burnt umber that I used to create a form of black. I brushed it all on with a 1″ brush.

Here is it after the first stage, with about an hour’s work done to it in all:

Then I went in with a second layer of washes, only slightly drier this time, blocking in more of the main chunks of darks and lights, along with splashes of the sages and reds I can see in my references. Nothing is defined yet, it’s all very loose. I like how it’s coming together so far. Used the same colors as above, with an added touch of burnt sienna. The blue is a mix of the above colors in a slightly different way, with a hint of titanium white. I’m working off the same stay-wet palette of Liquitex acrylic colors laid out from before.

That was last night’s progress. Today I spent another hour on it drawing in the pronghorn and putting in the beginning layers of color to define his body shape, and to cover over the background washes that showed through him. This is all still very loose at this point, although you can see I got a little more than a beginning layer done on his haunch. hehehe I couldn’t resist! Again using much of the same colors, with varying mixes of each to get the peachy tan shades for his hide. The black is actually the UB/BU mixture mentioned above. I brought out a couple of smaller round sable brushes for working on him. Size 6 and 4 rounds.

Now comes the fun part….doing more layers with tighter details in each subsequent layer. This is when the changes become less noticeable and it’s sometimes discouraging to see how little you come in such a long time. So far there’s only about 3hrs put into this piece, and it seems to have come so far. But from here on in it gets tougher and slower!

Sunday: Spent another hour or so on it, detailing the pronghorn more and adding a bit to the background around him to help define his edges. Still using the same palette as before. The second photo shows it where it sits after roughing in the shrub that he is laying behind.

Saturday, Sept 8: Spent about an hour this afternoon working on the background, and I spent another hour or two the other day working on details on the pronghorn himself, although it wasn’t enough noticable difference to bother shooting a picture of it for you. Today though there’s enough change that you can see. The pronghorn is for the most part done now, with the odd bit of touch ups here and there that I will most likely add to him later. But right now I’m focussing on the background…the landscape portion of the painting. Building up the foreground values, defining the grassiness under the pronghorn himself, building up the branches of the small shrub on the right. There’s lots more to do yet!

Friday, Sept 14 Spent some time this evening working on the background. It’s almost to the point of being called “done”, although I know I’ll likely do some tweaking on it yet once I’ve set it aside for awhile to come back and look at it through fresh eyes in a week or so. I did a lot of tonite’s work standing up, holding the brush at the end and dabbling the paint on here and there, trying not to work too tightly.

Tuesday, Sept 25 The painting has been sitting on my easel for a couple days, waiting to see if I was “done” with it. I think it is. I’m quite happy with it. Takes a bit of getting used to working looser like this though, a part of me wants to go in and add details, but I’m reminded of how too many details can be distracting. Yesterday when I was out hiking in the woods with my horse, I photographed what looked to be many nice scenes in the autumn grasses and trees. But the photo grabs too much detail and doesn’t let you see the simple beauty that is the richness of the colors and the light. So, an artist taking that beautiful scene and keeping it simple enough for the viewer to enjoy, there is definately something to that.

So here is the final painting, posted and ready for your perusal. If you would like to see it in person, it will be shown at the upcoming Reflections of Nature wildlife art show in Saskatoon, Sask, from October 12th to 14th, 2007

“Autumn Splendor”
24″ x 18″ acrylic on masonite
Available for Purchase - $1000 - Inquire

View Details Here - http://www.blackhorsedesign.com/pronghorn-painting.php

“Tundra Queen” is a portrait painting of Dharma WindSong of A Wolf Adventure. Beginning with a large sheet of Crescent Moorman suede board, I worked this piece in soft pastels including Rembrandts and a few Unisons.

My Palette included (but might not be limited to) these colors: Burnt umber (background), white (wolf and snow), ultramarine blue (wolf and sky), creams (wolf and snow highlights), greys, cobalt blue (sky), earth greens (background), purple (snow highlights), and a few other local colors as you may see in this picture. I work fairly all over the place, bouncing to and fro, and I usually pick my palette by eye, and save the pastels aside while working on a project, so I can quickly change from one color to another without having to remember “Which one did I use for this???”.

Below is a link to a step by step description of this painting as it progressed, written after the fact so forgive me if I don’t remember everything. I took photos of this painting in various stages along the way, sometimes at night, sometimes during the day, so the lighting will vary from photo to photo. Also, the board is laying at an angle on my drawing board so it is a bit skewed compared to the final piece which was photographed at a proper angle. But aside from that, I hope you will find it helpful to you in your pastel journeys.

To view this instruction page in full, click on the link below -
How to Paint an Arctic Wolf

At long last, a new black stallion painting for you all to enjoy! This piece is done in acrylics on gessoed gallery wrap canvas, measuring 16″ x 20″. It can be hung as is or with a fine ornate frame to finish the look.

The model for this pose was Sable Morgan’s Knight Kruiser, who’s father was the very epitomy of The Black in the flesh. This beautiful line of black Morgans capture the spirit and look of the Black Stallion. My own horse, Tattoo, shares this bloodline and is a half brother to Kruiser.

Enjoy!

My Best Friend
16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas
$900 - Inquire to sheri@blackhorsedesign.com

View details of this painting here

After working on this piece gradually over the past few months, I am happy to present to you the Tundra Queen, modeled after A Wolf Adventure’s arctic wolf, Dharma.

Dharma is a sweet alpha female arctic wolf belonging to Skylar Breton of Wolf Echo Valley, A Wolf Adventure. This large pastel painting captures a placid moment as the wolf pauses for a sip from some spring runoff in the tundra. You can learn more about Dharma and her wolfy friends at A Wolf Adventure.com

“Tundra Queen” - 19″ x 25″ pastel
Original Painting is Available, fully framed - $1,100

View more details about this painting here

Inquire to sheri@blackhorsedesign.com