Saturday, July 30, 2011

Jul 30 - New Beginnings, Horse in Oils

Starting a painting from a concept to a goal is always fun. Like a great puzzle, the pieces fit together. Yet unlike a puzzle, YOU get to determine the size and shape of the pieces!
Here's a 9 x 12 oil, starting with a toned wet canvas, I'm working to lay in the larger, eventually unimportant shapes as I blend the design down to the details of the horse and rider in the foreground.

Technical Tip: Think as you paint about the textural "character" of the objects you're depicting. If I paint a tree, I soften the edges of the branch ends to reflect the movement of the leaves. If I paint a distant mountain, I soften the edges of that mass to reflect the atmosphere between it and me. If I paint a nearby rock or the hindquarter of a horse, I use texture and edges to convey the character of its hardness and strength. So as we paint, we need to think about the inherent characteristics of our realism. Oh no, not just the color, light and values, eek!

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