A friend asked me to do a portrait of her lovely ole Teddy, a Belgian that lives and works as a therapy riding horse at Arion Therapeutic Farm. My friend also works there as a therapeutic riding instructor. My boys have been riding at Arion for one year now, and they love it. I love going there because I love horses and love just BEING at the farm because, well, its just therapeutic!! And there are tons of opportunities to sketch and photo horses and people working with horses.
Isn't Teddy gorgeous?? I think he's a favourite of most people and kids that ride on the farm. He's pretty big and very gentle and from what I see, he loves his job and the treats he gets!
I took tons of photos of Teddy and now I have about 3-4 good ones, out of dozens that I've taken. I chose this photo because it is a portrait, obviously, but he seems to be watching someone...less static than some of the other photos.
I've included a few pictures of my process and some challenges I'm having. My last horse painting was of The Team, the two Belgians, and I did that months ago!!
I took tons of photos of Teddy and now I have about 3-4 good ones, out of dozens that I've taken. I chose this photo because it is a portrait, obviously, but he seems to be watching someone...less static than some of the other photos.
I've included a few pictures of my process and some challenges I'm having. My last horse painting was of The Team, the two Belgians, and I did that months ago!!
I use my computer and Photoshop elements for a lot of my work. Here I took the image of Teddy and changed the contrast to exaggerate value. This helps me block in the big forms and not get caught up in detail too soon in the process. Yes, that is a grid and for a likeness when I draw I sometimes use a grid...it is not cheating for those that think so...I used to...but even Vermeer and other masters used grids or other aids to begin a work....I did do a non grid pencil sketch from a slightly different pose for Teddy, but decided to use the photo above.
The left shows "my burnt sienna with a touch of orange" toned canvas with a light pencil grid and line sketch...to get a likeness it was critical I get the relative proportions right. This is about as far as the grid can help me here, since it will be covered in paint...I did keep some reference lines around the edges to help with placement. On the right photo is the first step in getting the darkest values by blocking in shapes. I'm not thinking "horse" here that much!
The next stage is again more refinement. I have to be careful here to not get carried away with tiny brush strokes and "fiddling"...this is a small painting at 8X10. I've created a more defined background and defined the hair and ears and nose a little more. The last stage shown is yet more refinement, but I am still not satisfied and do not call this a finished piece. I started to fiddle more and I don't like the background at all...for now, I will leave this piece and let Teddy "incubate" for a few days!