"Balboa Lusitano" and the perils of cats and charcoal

"Balboa Lusitano"
detail with cat's pawprint

I was waiting for my turkey to brine on the night of Friday, November 28th.  I had about four hours to kill, and I was inspired to take out my charcoal for the first time in quite a while.  Working from a reference photo by Bob Langrish in one of my many horse books, I became lost in capturing the spirit of this fiery Lusitano stallion.  His bay coloring and fierce eye put me in mind of Rocky Balboa; Rocky IV had been playing in the pizza parlor earlier that day.  Hence, the title for this piece: "Balboa Lusitano."  I will probably almost certainly do some more work on it.  As you can see in the above photo, my cat Arya decided to take a closer look at this drawing.  I took the picture for evidence before erasing the paw print with a kneaded eraser, so I could photograph the entire drawing.

"Balboa Lusitano"
pen and charcoal
11x14

During the process of photographing, Arya came to investigate.  Most of the time, I love how she follows me around the house.  Most of the time.  I like it rather less when she gets her little paws (and claws) into my artwork and supplies.  She is terribly adorable, regardless.

Who, me?

On Friday, I became frustrated with the lighting at my desk job while working some more on my Suffolk Punch team graphite.  It's rather dim and yellowish light, and I literally could not see what I was doing with the lighter gray details.  So I decided to make this tracing off of the computer monitor to feel some sort of sense of accomplishment.  This revealed to me that my free hand drawing was not quite accurate in its proportions, but fairly close.  I might take some watercolor or acrylic paint to it and just have fun.

I was talking to my significant other about all that I had/have in mind to do: finish matting and framing my prints, acquiring more supplies, going to Greens and Beans, blogging, trying to become good enough to have an art show, going to other people's galleries.  He said that he had no idea that there was so much to art.  As one of my professors said, there's a reason why artwork is called Art. Work: yet I want to continue enjoying the fulfillment of my creative process.
 

Sometimes I draw stuff other than horses. But mostly I draw horses.

I am in the process of working on an exhaustingly detailed (for me, anyway) graphite drawing of a Suffolk Punch team.  Draft horses have been very appealing to draw for me lately.  Their thicker, more muscular conformation allows me to diversify my equine portfolio, and I also don't want civilization to forget about these strong animals, without whom so much agricultural work was nigh impossible.  Also, war horses.  Do you really think anything but a big draft type could handle The Mountain That Rides?

"Suffolk Punch Team"- work in progress
graphite
11x13

 I really, really want this to be a great piece.  The reference photo is just gorgeous, and I want to do it justice.  However, I need to keep reminding myself that it doesn't have to be good at all, that I just have to try and all will be well.  Like so many others out there, I struggle with being far too harsh on myself, and I want art to keep being fun for me, after so long of it feeling like a chore.  For now, this is just a graphite piece, but I may add pen for some boldness.  It's about four hours in, and many more to go.  Just figuring out the contour lines was an excruciating two hours.   I unfortunately forgot my pencil on Thursday, so I did a sketch of my beagle, Brucie, instead.  This one took about two hours.  What is this?  She does stuff other than horses? I can hear you asking.  Why yes, yes I do.  But horses are my favorite.

"Brucie"
pen sketch
small leather sketchbook