 -Examples of finished paintings |
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Jane Disney is enamoured of the musculature and personality of
horses of all types, but especially arabs. The photo she was working from here was of an american "halfer" (half-miler). They are used in cattle handling because of their manoeuverability and sprinting capability. This side-on pose is called a "Confirmation" view, conventionally popular because it shows all the salient features of the animal. Some other views are sketched at the bottom of this write-up |
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Jane was working on the less-textured side of a sheet of Ingres
pastel paper. She works mostly from photographs but does refer to sketches she has made from life. She would normally take 5 or 6 hours for a painting like this. So, to save time, she had already prepared a stylised 'basic shapes' definition of the composition in HB pencil. Over this she started by outlining, still in pencil, the 'final' shape of the head. I have added the dimensions, in head-lengths, and the square which typically encloses the body and legs. |
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Once the whole animal had been drawn in pencil she started with the
pastel pencils. Jane's favourite brand is CarbOthello (the Conté ones are rather gritty for her way of working). These pencils are fragile: once broken the whole length of the "lead" seems to be ruined. "Carry spares". |
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She has a palette of only six colours for horses: a black; a light
grey and four browns, from a tan to a sort of burnt umber (the colours are
numbered, not named). Being right-handed she works strictly from left to right,
finishing each section before moving on to the next. Otherwise there's a risk
of smudging. She normally starts with the mid-brown, gradually introducing the other colours and blending them in to eliminate obvious lines. Blending is done only with one of the colours (very rarely with fingers or any other blending tool) and generally from light to dark. |
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Note how the transition between the head and the neck was left
quite late. There was a similar clear white gap between the neck and the
shoulder before that was blended out. The process is slow and meticulous, individual pencils shuttling rapidly in and out of the bunch of six in her hand. Attention must be given to the glossiness of the coat because it contributes to the shape of the surface, perhaps as much as the shadows do. But beware, gloss is a summer feature: a horse's coat is much more felt-like in winter. The next steps will be to complete the front legs (black, since it is a Bay) and then to go into the barrel (chest), being sure to give it the proper round barrel shape. Jane brought the completed painting to the next week's Workshop (see below). |
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 effects of movement on legs and some other poses  |
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