I have been promising to update clients on my drawing progress...and I've let up a little...only because of the holidays and art shows. But, enough with the excuses...
When a client asked me to draw horses for her, (as a Christmas gift to her daughter...one horse has passed away and the other she has now...both very special to her), I was really thrilled. Horses are one of the most beautiful creatures that God ever designed. And drawing them is one of my favorite things to do.
As I began to draw the first horse, Ned, my intention was to use tinted charcoal. I love the look of it...it's very subtle. But I found that nothing but trouble was in store for me. The tinted charcoal only comes in wooden pencil form. But because charcoal is so fragile and crumbly...well, as you can probably guess, each time I went to sharpen them the lead just busted up. The result was a red face and scowling eyes. (not the drawing...ME). As a result of this struggle I now own many different kinds of pencil sharpeners...electric, hand crank, little ones, big ones, expensive ones and cheap ones...so if you need to borrow one I'm your gal! I also tried my hand at whittling, which my brother taught me how to do one night sitting by a bon-fire...but, nope, that didn't work either!
I struggled for days...until I realized that the tinted charcoal was really similar to my pastels...which are not pencils, but the hard chalk type that can be sharpened by using sand paper. Or if you are blessed to have a relative in the dry-wall business he can hook you up with some dry-wall screen. I have a small square of it which I wrapped around the bottom part of a pastel box. I use the top of the box to hold it onto it. Then I can sharpen the pastels while the "dust" goes into the box. When I'm done I just turn the top back around to close the box until next time. (Just a little hint for you pastel artists and artists to be).
Okay, so I started using the pastels...and yay! I got my "art mojo" back. It's that thing that just comes over me and says...okay...yes...this is looking how I wanted. No more struggling. Whew! So I have the first horse done (mostly)...and then I have a second horse in a similar pose (jumping) for the other side of the page. I am going to tweek this first horse after I've started the other, but for the most part he's finished.
The picture that the client provided is very sharp and clear, but really small. So here's another tip...scan the picture and enlarge it. (You can't tell here, but the enlargement is blurry when it comes to details). So I bought a really great magnifying glass that hangs around my neck. When I want to see detail more easily I look at the original and it works nicely!
I will be drawing the other horse starting tomorrow...so check back again soon!!!
Pastels on a brown mat board 20"x24"
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