back in the saddle....again

a horse with no face....hmmm

we arrived home in one piece after a nice trip across country. things have been set up in the studio and i have done some more painting on the most recent effort, "chiricahua scout." to start things out i decided to add a butte in the distance. i probably should have looked at my numerous photos of same as the shape isn't quite right but i will leave it alone for now. this was done using the burnt sienna and cobalt blue and applied with a #10 round kolinski brush. secondly i put in an irregular graded wash (both color and value) that got more warm and dark as it moved forward in space to lend an air of distance. i think i did this with cerulean in the back working through quinacridone gold, yellow ocher, burnt sienna and burnt umber in the nearest areas. i switched to a #10 squirrel hair mop for this mainly because of the amount of water it will hold.  turning to the horse, i added a little more modelling and darkened the legs especially on the rear ones. for this i used cerulean blue, carmine, and yellow ochre for the modelling and burnt sienna and ultramarine blue for the legs applying all with a #8 round. lastly at this stage of painting i decided to put in a partly cloudy, cumulus-laden sky by using the large squirrel mop and pretty much pure cerulean blue. i started with the negative painting done at the very beginning around the hat to make sure i blended in alright and then expanded to the rest of the sky leaving the whites alone. i lost some edges by spritzing some dots of water along the bottom edges and blotting here and there with a tissue. the shading was done with cobalt blue and burnt sienna, softening the edges the same way. having done that to my satisfaction i decided that there was something wrong anatomically with the head and lifted it out with a stiff synthetic flat and blotting followed with a mr. clean eraser. when that had dried enough i redrew the head which ended with it slightly smaller and the snout at a little different angle to the forehead. hopefully that will look better. we'll see.

headless no more

the next day i made some changes to the background trying to put in some texture with maintaining the sense of distance by scumbling and scraping in an over wash of the same colors used before in the far and mid distance. i will let that dry before doing more in this fashion as i am not too sure that this was a good idea at this juncture. i moved onto the horse's head and repainted it by modelling with the cerulean/carmine/yellow ochre wash and the #8 round. the horse has a few spots, more on his head and snout, that i am not really sure of the color as it is a b+w photo. so, i made up a burnt sienna and brown madder mix to contrast some with the bluish- gray modelling. this head is better and i am pleased with the changes. i think i am nearing completion at this point but i still have to make a decision about the, i now believe, ill advised monkeying with the prairie part of the painting. i decide to let things rest overnight and reassess in the morning. that's all for now. be well.