Thursday, March 15, 2012

Mare with Spring Colors Turns into Midnight Mare

I've been getting inspired by all the great artists and different techniques that people share here online. I decided to try a different technique today using glazing. This is totally different from my usual wet-in-wet direct approach. I decided to try to figure this out. I wanted to use an under-painting of spring colors for my "Signs of Spring" project this month.

Step 1

I admit that I am flying by the seat of my pants here. It started off OK with this somewhat random under painting of pastel colors in step one.

Step 2

In step two, I added some facial detailing and darker values using a neutral grey.  I think this is where I started to go wrong. Too dark too soon?

Step 3

In step 3, my background really got away from me. It is way darker than I had wanted. Then I started darkening the values of the horse more than planned. This didn't come out how I had envisioned, but I learned a lot today. Yes, I'm going to give it another go, Kathryn! As photographer, Mike Wallace said;  "You have to try to figure things out. You have to fail with a purpose."

Any critiques, suggestions, instructions or comments on this would be greatly appreciated, thank-you, friends!

3 comments:

  1. Sandy, you rascal!!! I had a big belly laugh reading your post today. That's my favorite thing to do in painting. All of a sudden, you realize the values have swept you away ...
    And I'm glad to hear you will try again. The structure of the head is beautiful.
    Maybe we could start a club???

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  2. I love what you started out with, very Fauve! I glaze a lot and it can get away from you quickly. But your subject is well constructed and shadowed. Maybe a little less gray and keep to your original color scheme,
    don't go gray until the very end and if you don't already, use compliments mixed into the color to shadow. With more color the blue background will set it all off nicely. It's beautiful, really, no one works a horse better than you!

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  3. Oh Kathryn, you are the queen of the re-do! If we have a club, I nominate you the president! :-D Thanks for the encouragement!! And Carmella, what thoughtful and valuable advise you have just shared! I truly value your critique and expertise. That's it! The compliments mixed w/ the colors for the 2nd pass. . . brilliant!! I'll save the grey for last. I think I will feel more comfortable if I put some value on the background in the first step too. Thanks again ladies for your thoughts!!

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