Shire Mares 5

Today I've blocked in the background using a combination of burnt umber, naples yellow and titanium white, having already worked on the second mare's neck collar and chains.  

Once this is dry and will go back and tidy up some elements, including the front chain,  and start to glaze with a liquin + body  colour mix.

Shire Mares 4

Today I've been working on the second mare, specifically on her bridle and blinkers and some of the chain and rope details. This has taken me the best part of a day and can be excruciatingly slow work at times but well worth it when you step back and see what you've done. 

I'm very pleased with how this has turned out. Tomorrow I will start on her collar.

Shire Mares 3

I've finally had chance to work on this again today and have blocked in the second mare. She's quite brown in the sunlight so I've added a little burnt sienna to my mix and painted her rough coat with a 1/2 inch square brush, using another, clean square to blend the edges.  I'm really please with how the work has gone today and can't wait to tackle all her lovely tack and gear.

Shire Mares 2

The painting is slowly progressing as the second shire begins to take shape.  Once she's blocked in I will concentrate on all the tack, ropes and decoration before going back to the horses and tightening up any bits that need it. 

I like to pay particular attention to the muzzle as this, for me, is a joy to paint.  I love to try and recreate that velvety softness in paint.

Here's the shire painting started. I've primed up a 24 x 31 inch board with three coats of acrylic gesso and one thin coat of naples yellow acrylic. The horses have then been carefully traced onto the board from the original drawing, rubbed back (so that the pencil lines aren't too strong) and the painting begun from the left.

As you can see the first mare is almost done, though I will probably go back to her to strengthen up the muzzle.  The 'black' of their coats is a combination of  ultramarine blue, raw umber and ivory black oils mixed with titanium white alkyd to aid drying time. I've just started the second mare and will update the blog as soon as she is properly underway. Typically for me I haven't decided on the background colour as yet but It will probably be an earthy brown to tie in with these grand old ladies.

Shire Mares

This lovely pair of shire mares is going to be one of my next projects.  I painted a different photograph of them as a commission some years ago now and haven't looked at the rest of the pictures I took until recently.

I'm tempted to do this fairly big (for me), as I've enjoyed painting on a larger scale recently.  We shall see......

Behind the Stalls, Ffos Las

This is a painting I've wanted to do for a while as I love exploring light and colour with paint.  I have painted a little study of the horse on the left before (see my logo on the right) so I've found it easier to paint him and his jockey a second time using the same sunny pallet.

I started off with a fairly detailed drawing first then blocked in the sky, landscape and grass fairly loosely.  I won't go back to the sky or landscape now but the grass will need further work once the horses are done.

The horses and their jockeys are then painted in a 'cancerous' fashion, i.e. one small section at a time so that usually, I won't have to go back to them afterwards.  You can see this method in the middle and top pictures as each part is sectioned off and painted.  I then use a soft brush to blend any hard edges.

At the moment this painting is sitting in the studio drying. the jockey on the right needs finishing off then I will probably tackle the rest of the stalls and finally the grass