Painting with a big brush and lots of paint

I have spent a fair amount of time painting horses at the easel, and I have had the great fortune to study with some experts at depicting the horse: Ned Jacobs, Jim Norton, and Grant Redden, but nothing will humble you more than taking some pencils and maybe a field set of watercolors and heading out to a pasture or corral to draw this beautiful animal from life. An old Mexican proverb states, It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall.  

And fall you will. You will fall far from the grace of working in the comforts of a studio, with good reference photographs when you draw the horse from life. So many things can go wrong. You have to bring a good understanding of drawing objects in perspective and creating the sensation of volume if you are to stay in the saddle when it comes to drawing the horse. A working knowledge of how the horse is put together helps as does the behaviors of these whips constantly moving subjects. Why bother? I believe it is so very special to be in the presence of a horse, and if you are like me the horse represents an intricate part of my culture and heritage. A heritage I am determined to preserve in paint as I create. Working with horses from life you gain first hand experience with the various tendencies of how legs are places while the horse goes about its day, you see subtle value and colors that reference photographs just can't capture, and you begin to breathe life into your studio work of these spirited creatures. Verisimilitude, the ring of truth can be yours if you spend enough dedicated time studying the horse from life. At least this is my belief, hope, and goal.

I went out this morning to a neighbor's place to get in some practice and just enjoy being around their mares and foals. Currently, they have 4 foals of different ages, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see so many of these curious and beguiling critters. I spent the first part of the morning with my sketchbook and a couple of pencils. I didn't worry too much about complete accuracy at first, rather I tried to capture the GISS, a birding term for general impression size and shape. Often I might only get down a couple of strokes indicating the spine and the head before the animals moved. Knowing that most animals will move, but then move back to a similar pose is beneficial. You just start one pose in a corner of your book and then return to it when the animal hits the same pose. You will probably notice that horses tails are in constant motion and are very expressive! Also, a mare will not tolerate other mares near her foal for long. She will use her body to block out the others. If you are patient though and the flies aren't too bad horses will eventually settle. Grazing takes up the majority of the time so many of my efforts reflect this today. Below is an example of the gestural drawings I do to capture pose, and practice GISS.

I spent about an hour just part of the herd drawing various poses, attempting some longer poses as the horses allowed, and then moved to more considered drawings where I had 2-3 started and I flipped back and forth in my book when the horses took the same stance. This technique allows me to spend more time, work out proportion and anatomy and get a more complete study. Below are examples of these types of studies I creates today.

I arrived at one sketch that felt pretty good and was really interesting to me the way the mare was looking back over the foal and decided to use my sketch to draw out a preliminary drawing for a watercolor sketch. The mare and foal didn't stay in this pose the whole time, but all of the time I had already spent had pretty well engrained the general look, color, and shapes I needed to do the watercolor. The loose sketches and the more complete drawings also prepared me for the field painting. See the field painting I created below:

So I spent the morning practicing falling, or sketching through trial and error so that when I ride I do so more informed and with the experience of failure as my guide. Today was a great day spent outdoors with a great group of horses. I didn't create any masterpieces and that really wasn't the idea. I did come away with more understanding about horse structure, how light falls on the body of a horse, and behavior of mares and foals all of which are incredibly valuable when I tackle my net studio piece.

Once again thank you for taking the ride with me, and be sure to check out what Im up to on Facebook and Instagram.

JR Monks

jrmonks.com