Pony Scribble

"Pony Scribble"
pen sketch

In order to encourage myself to draw something today, I simply took a pen and began scribbling in my sketchbook.  As happens so often, the scribbles began to take on an equine form, and a quick drawing was built from there.  I gave myself permission to be messy, to not have perfect proportions, and allow my creativity to come to the fore.  All too often, my creativity is swallowed by other demands on my mental energy, and when I do sit down to create, I am hindered by fear of not being good enough.  I am learning how to push through that reluctance and anxiety about beginning, and accepting the changes and flaws that occur both in art and in life.  Trying is better than not taking any risks, and if I can encourage myself to draw outside of my comfort zone, wonderful things might happen- such as this little drawing!

Friday Sketch

pen

Portrait of a Horse

"Portrait"
graphite

I managed to completely fill up my leather sketchbook, so I have moved on to a new one.  It's a rare accomplishment for me, and one I hope to repeat.  This new sketchbook was purchased at the same time as the old one, and is the same size (I know, I know, I really ought to do some larger drawings).  

I was in the mood to draw a horse face.  The framing of the subject could have been done better- I would have liked to include all of the ears, not just the base, and also a little more of the neck.  I was able to fix having made the horse's muzzle too long and slender, and I do believe that this is only the second time that I have ever attempted drawing the veins on a horse.  While I could have spent more time on this, I am still happy with the result.

"Gray Lusitano" graphite sketch

"Gray Lusitano"
graphite
small leather sketchbook

I've been on a Lusitano kick lately; these especially beautiful horses are similar to the Andalusian horse and possess large quantities of fire, grace, and spirit.  Their movement is high-stepping and smooth.  This is a movie-star breed.

I had a little bit of difficulty with foreshortening in the left hindquarter as he steps forward, and the right foreleg is just a little too long.  However, I did well in capturing the feeling of motion, the horse's proudly arched neck, and the degree of collection that he possesses.  

"Dun Lusitano" graphite sketch

"Dun Lusitano"
graphite
small leather sketchbook

I decide to return to a more realistic style after feeling inspired by talking horses with a friend of mine.  There's a dun mare who graduated from the Rutgers Young Horse research program available for lease in my area, and I am deeply tempted to meet her.  She looks like a gorgeous, friendly animal, and was the reason for my Google search "dun horse."

This horse's confirmation looks good and well-formed, except for the fact that his head is too big.  I actually began with the head, when it is usually better to have a rough drawing of the whole horse first.  The latter methodology can help you catch any disproportions and other mistakes.  I also began too low down on my page, and as I wanted to draw all of the horse or as much as possible, some subconscious shrinkage occurred from the shoulder back.  It's most noticeable in the hindquarters.  I did not have a blending stick, so I used a finger to lightly shade the horse and went over darker areas again with my pencil.  The drawing does not have a finished feel to it but retains its sketch characteristics.  I would like to heighten the contrast and tighten up some of the pencil strokes.  I have noticed that my pencil sketches of horses do have a similar style, although I haven't quite figured out how to describe it yet.

Triceratops Sketch

"Trike"
graphite sketch
small leather sketchbook

One day, I will have a scanner, and my readers won't be subjected to less than ideal cell phone photos.  A couple of days ago, I was thinking about dinosaurs, and about drawing a dinosaur.  When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a paleontologist.  My brothers and I watched Jurassic Park, Land Before Time, and this worn out VHS documentary about dinosaurs on repeat.  We had all sorts of toy dinosaurs; a blue stuffed triceratops has survived with us all these years.  It makes sense, given my love of nature and animals.  Dinosaurs are an extinct branch of what could have been, and also appeal to my fascination with fantasy.  It wouldn't be too far fetched to say dragons existed, but we just haven't found them in the fossil record yet.  So when my brain said, "We shall draw a triceratops," I gladly reminisced on all the excitement I felt as a child when confronted with these amazingly diverse animals.  As an adult, well, they're still pretty cool.  I can't really say the same about Fisher Price.

Spiral Skylarks

"Spiral Skylarks"
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Wednesday Sketch

Untitled graphite sketch
small leather sketchbook

Tovero Dream: combining old and new styles

"Tovero Dream" partial
graphite sketch
small leather sketchbook

Today I decided to combine a more realistic style with my recent experimentation in abstraction, and this sketch was the result.  I used a photo of a tovero stallion as my template for non-abstract conformation, and his patches as a map for my topography-like lines.  His mane originally hung over his neck and chest, but as I find myself fond of a Roman or Trojan horse look, I decided to change that.  This is a graphite sketch, but I feel that this would have the most impact in ink or a clear crisp paint such as gouache.

Leaping the Moon- graphite sketch

"Leaping the Moon"
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Today I was looking at videos of some eventing horses.  Cross country jumping is always impressive to look at, and the bold spirit of these horses in soaring over solid obstacles served as my inspiration.  Proudly arched necks, neatly tucked forelegs, grace and athletic power- all this I hope to capture.

It's been freeing moving away from realism, yet having a grasp of equine anatomy lends authenticity to these drawings.  On a deeper level, they are symbolic of the lines of power and life in our own bodies.  They express my journey towards finding balance in life and connection with my inner spirit.

I'm mentally turning over how to execute one of these style figures into a color painting.  Should each line be a different color?  Should I fill in the in between spaces?  One color family?  Complementary colors?  Acrylic?  Gouache?  Oil pastels?  I imagine that I'll try everything at least once to see what looks best and what works on a practical level.

Primitive Op Art- trying a new style

Leaping the Wave
graphite
small leather sketchbook

As I was drinking my tea yesterday morning, my brain said to itself, "Today, you will draw an abstract horse with exaggerated features and many contour lines."  I needed a break from improving my realistic work, and from working from photos.  I wanted to tap into that inner creative child who was inspired by Disney's hand drawn Fantasia.

Traveling has been on my mind lately; a trip to the Caribbean or southern hemisphere sounds very appealing with the cold days of January and February ahead.  I was thinking of all the nontraditional art I had been exposed to in my art history classes from around the world, and also of a children's book I used to own called The Desert is Theirs.  I always loved the austere and line dominated illustrations by Peter Parnall.  While drawing these horses, line after line, my mind entered a Zen like peace.  I began with an outline of a horse figure and worked within its body afterward.  I purposely exaggerated some features, such as the above horse's neck being so broad and arched, and went for a geometric yet natural feel to the drawings.

I might do a painting with this sort of theme in mind; I would use warm subtle earth tones like those found in the cave paintings of Lascaux.

War Cry
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Arabian stallion sketch, v2.0

"At Attention"
graphite sketch
small leather sketchbook

I was still feeling attracted to the theme of black Arabian stallions, perhaps from having looked over my bookshelves and seeing Walter Farley's The Black Stallion.  This was the result of having spent about 45 minutes sketching from an online photo.  It's been very difficult for me to muster up the same enthusiasm to draw at least every week day as when I started this blog, but that's why I set parameters for myself such as running an ideal blog post schedule of every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The end of the holidays and the old year lead to a sort of limbo in the beginning of the new year for me; no major holidays to plan for, a relatively clean slate, but rather forbidding weather.  Despite the rain and ice-covered sidewalks, I still walked my beagle this morning for our usual thirty-five minutes; I have no wish for my dog walker to risk life and limb in this weather.  As soon as I got back home, I wanted nothing more then to put my pajamas back on and resume watching nature documentaries on Netflix.  Instead, I salted down my bit of sidewalk, got in my car, and headed off to my 9-5.  

Resisting the urge to hibernate is a real struggle, including when it conflicts with my creative impulse.  This is part of the reason that I have not created anything on a larger scale than my little sketchbook recently.  I also will reluctantly admit that I haven't yet finished matting, framing, and taking my prints off to the floral shop.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to complete this goal before the end of January.  Today, I am considering opening up a Fine Art America or SmugMug account to further spread my art and potentially sell a print or two.

First sketches of the new year

Chiaroscuro Arabian
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Leaping OTTB
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Gesture drawing with horses

I had ten minutes, and I decided to draw some horses from real life using my skills from drawing a human model.  There's a few pastures near my workplace.  These Standardbred geldings were munching down on some hay in a hay rack.  They also are not so cooperative as a human model, who you can tell to just stand there.  Because they were eating, their body movement was minimal, but their heads and necks were constantly in motion.  It was an exhilarating challenge that mentally put me totally in the moment.  The goal of gesture drawing is to capture your subject in as little time as possible, and is ideal both for your developing eye and for capturing subjects prone to sudden movement.

Gesture Drawing 1
pen
small leather sketchbook

Gesture Drawing 2
pen
small leather sketchbook

Gesture Drawing 3
pen
small leather sketchbook

Later, I had a little more time and worked from one of my old photos, paying close attention to the details of and around the eye.  This took much longer than ten minutes.  I got very much into the swing of laying down graphite line after graphite line.  A few areas should be darker, but I will need something harder than #2 to properly finish it out.

Equine Eye and Face- study
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Black-capped chickadees and working from photographs

Black-capped Chickadee
pen and pencil
small leather sketchbook
Original Photo

Most of my work lately has been from photographs, and often not my own photographs.

This is for a number of reasons.  I do not yet have the financial luxury of being a full time artist, and while I do consider myself a decent photographer (I promise that I'll get some photographs of my own up here eventually), I simply have not had the time to go out and take a lot of new pictures.  As I work towards developing my technical skills as a professional artist on a very limited time budget, and I find myself curious about different breeds of horses, different poses, and different species, this means I go to the almighty Google and see what the world has to offer me.  I would really, really rather be going out into the world itself, sketchbook and camera in hand.

As an art school graduate, I know that I'm capable of creating from my own personal observation.  This alleviates some of the sting.  The photograph undergoes some transformation under my pen and pencil, and so it is not like the original; I omit scenery or other details, or imagine what's under an overexposed highlight, or simply do not have the ability to create a photo realistic image.  I am supremely thankful to those people whose photographs have helped me to create new drawings.

I do encourage artists to use photographs.  They can help you see what you might have missed in a real life observation, or solve a drawing problem.  Some subjects are difficult to capture in real life, such as birds, horses and (awake) cats.  Franz Marc and other great artists used to go to slaughter houses or literally kill birds so that they could better observe their subject.  That's not always feasible in today's age.  Hence, photographs.  Drawing from a photograph does help to learn the subject and hone your observation skills.  I am working on not "being a slave to the reference," however.

Ideally, I would work from life and from my own reference photos, and I am working on putting myself in a place where I can do just that (i.e., not commuting 2+ hours every day on top of the eight hour work day and not relying on takeout).  I want to be a full time professional artist; this blog partially details that journey.  It may be as simple (and complicated) a matter of just taking the plunge and leaving the traditional work force.  I hope to build a large enough client/fan base to be able to do just that within the next five years, or to be able to find a different job that is not so restrictive or far from home (sorry bosses).  There's always tomorrow, I tell myself comfortingly.  But the other part of me says, "The time is now!"  For the present, I do my daily sketches, write my blog, and formulate my plans and dreams.

Anyway, black-capped chickadees are one of my favorite bird species, and are prevalent in my area at this time of year.  They are vivacious, curious little creatures, and sound so cute when they say, "Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!"  Seeing them takes me away to quiet, snow-covered fields and forests, walking through the cold beauty of winter.  Even with all of the gray and cloudy weather recently, a chickadee will reliably make me smile.

Chickadee Sketch- no reference
pen
small leather sketchbook

"Chickadee Study"
pen and pencil
small leather sketchbook

Sketch Friday

After reading an article about what differentiates a professional artist from the amateur, I decided that I would get out my sketchbook and draw, even if what I really wanted to do was pass out, face down, on my desk.  But, the professional artist does not wait for inspiration to strike.  Instead, she works at something every day.

The first drawing was so-so.  I drew this Newfoundland's face quickly, focusing on how large different patches of fur were and the lighting of each to determine my proportions.  As you can see, I ended up drawing over the original sketch.  For a little bit, I had a lopsided, four-eyed dog staring back at me from the page.  It was pretty trippy.  Now the dog is only slightly lop-sided, and because I did everything in pen, you can see that the dog's face was just a little too wide at first.  Okay, a lot too wide.  It doesn't have to be perfect, I chanted to myself as I slogged away at it.

Why do you do this to me.

It may be much less than perfect, but that dog is looking at you exactly the way that I wanted to look at everyone yesterday.

Ugh.  Feed me and tuck me in someplace cozy already.

That took roughly an hour and a half, and I had plenty of drawing time left.  It was time to go back to the old standby topic of interest- horses!  I was much more satisfied with this one, and I even reminded myself of Wesley Dennis's illustrations, who is best known today for his work with author Marguerite Henry.  Dapple gray is a difficult coat pattern to draw, by the way.  It requires quite a lot of patience and concentration for all of that detail.  That is where the beauty of suggestion comes in handy.  I think that this is the first drawing of two horses doing something other than standing around looking pretty that I've done in a while, and I used two reference photos for the composition.

"Tag"
graphite
small leather sketchbook

Some sketches, and more thoughts on matting

Some quick internet searching has revealed the depth of my lack of knowledge on how to mat my prints.  However, my googling has also shown that this can easily be remedied, and now I have a few more items on my wish list: namely those supplies required to cut my own mat board.  I also saw some good ideas on picking up frames from Goodwill and the like, since places like Michael's will charge you a simply ridiculous amount of money.

I'm always a little nervous about using sharp edges and power tools (I walked in on The Machinist at a very scarring moment), which is one of the reasons why I only ever visited the wood shop at Mason Gross once to attempt making my own frame for a canvas.  If only somebody would cut the frames for me, then I would happily stretch my own canvas!  I do think that I can handle a mat cutter, though.  I want to be a serious artist, and a serious artist can and will cut her own mats.  I will start with simple archival-quality matboard until I have a little more recognition and funding, then I will look into the museum-quality stuff.

Meanwhile, here are some sketches for your amusement.

"Palomino"
colored pencil
small leather sketchbok

"I Love Snow"
EnerGel pen
small leather sketchbook

"Dappled Stud"
EnerGel pen
small leather sketchbook

Two Horses

"Two Horses- Sketch"
Pentel EnerGel pen
small leather sketchbook

I found a gel pen in my purse, and spent the next few hours drawing.  When drawing in pen, I do not do a preliminary sketch in pencil but go right for it.  This worked very well for me in my life drawing classes and has resulted in some of my more bold and interesting drawings.  I suspect that this is because there is no undoing any "mistakes," and this gives my work more character.  I love drawing two horses together, connecting in their wordless language of breath and touch.

I have been doing a few pen pieces on watercolor paper, mainly because I have a huge stack of loose leaf watercolor paper which is easy to transport in a small folder.  Bristol or regular drawing paper is preferable to me, but I haven't bought a conveniently sized pad of paper yet.  I hate spending money and like working with what I have; I can make the excuse that the watercolor paper adds an interesting texture to my work.  Improvement to both my skill and supplies will come with time.

"Two Horses"
Pentel EnerGel pen
11"x13" watercolor paper