The Many Faces of Bellator

Shanghai Spring, 4 x 6 watercolour and ink, Christine Trevino

We had our best turnout yet for a pARTy with this March edition - now you can see what took me so long getting them up! Thanks to all of our participants, and to our handsome model, Bellator. Hope you all had fun!

Artists - I included the "specs" on your piece and a link for those I had - I didn't have time to go searching this time. Send me an email and the pARTy address if yours is missing and you'd like me to add it. And if I've missed someone, please let me know!

Yvonne Todd, 6 x 2.5 oil

"Bellator in Winter," 14 x 10 watercolour on coldpress, Dora Sislian Themelis

"Why The Long Face?" 16 x 8 oil on canvas, Linda Massey

Sue Kroll, 10 x 8 acrylic

"Fuzzy Ears," 7 x 5 oil, Marilyn Sadler

Miriam Hughes

Mary Agarwal

Lisa Guarino, 4 x 3 watercolour pencil

Linda Ward, 3.5 x 2.5 (ACEO) pencil

"Vertical (Bellator)" 16 x 8 acrylic on canvas board, Kim Santini

Kathy Roeth, 14 x 10 gouache and watercolour on coldpress

Karen Thumm, 12 x 9 oil on canvas board

Karen Bowden

"Just a Bit of Blarney" 6 x 4 acrylic on coldpress watercolour paper, Linda Martin

Judy Johnson, 6 x 4 watercolour

"Nice 'N' Cozy", 6 x 6 acrylic, Elizabeth McCrindle

"Hay?" 11 x 4 oil on canvas, Diana Lancaster

Charlotte Tanner, acrylic on cardboard

"Bellator #2" 7 x 5 oil on shellaced masonite, Linda Shantz

January pARTy Paintings - Mares and Foals

Well, here are the paintings from the latest pARTy! We had good participation, and some great work. I always like to see what different artists come up with.

Though are pursuits as artists are often solitary, a recent comment by friend and fine art photographer Juliet Harrison was a good reminder that we don't, however, create in a vacuum. We can't help but be influenced by each other, and that's not a bad thing, as long as we continue to develop and maintain our own style and individuality. These pARTies are a good example of that - even though some of us went with a very similar crop of the reference photo, our styles remain unique.

In the same vein, these pARTies began as a fun challenge of sorts, between myself and Kim Santini, last year. When other artists began to show interest and we opened it up, what developed was not a novel concept. My first exposure to this sort of exercise was on Wet Canvas, with the weekly Weekend Drawing Events. As a result of that, our own Equine Art Guild has done similar projects. And a great blog with a weekly drawing/painting challenge is Karen Jurik's Different Strokes From Different Folks.

Okay - enough yaking! Here are the paintings.

First, from your pARTy hosts:

Kim Santini, 4 x 16 acrylic on Raymar panel (above, top of post)

Linda Shantz, 6 x 8 oil on Raymar panel

Now, our participants, below. If I have any latecomers, I will edit the post and add them later! Thanks to all who played.

Delia Pacheo, "The Foal" 4 x 6 acrylic

Judy Johnson, 8 x 8 watercolour

Lisa Ward-Guarino, pastel

Linda Snider-Ward, prismacolor on Stonehenge

Linda Massey, "Playground Encounter" 11 x 14 oil on board

Kathy Roeth, 5 x 7 watercolour and gouache on 140lb watercolour paper



Linda L. Martin, "Afternoon Pasture," 9 x 12 watercolour

Warming Up

I cropped the photo a bit - one, to eliminate the sliver of negative space near the lower hind, and two, to accent the forward motion of the horse and the relationship with the jockey. My original intent was to include all of the jockey, but I couldn't find my proportional wheel and chose the wrong size board.  I do like the energy that's still caught, despite the jockey's  decapitation - but in many instances the painting would be ruined due to lack of proper planning. I just lucked out today.

So I began with a wash of ultramarine blue, bleeding to a pthalo blue red at the bottom. The ultra is a cooler blue, and the pthalo a warmer one. Cooler colors = distance, and I wanted that balance from the get go.

Then I started roughly blocking in the shape of the horse and jockey. I'm not worried about nit-pickey details, just rough forms, and beginning to establish values. It's not important to even have the right colors down now, because so many more layers will go overtop.

I modified the tree line from the reference photo. I needed a diagonal to sort of intercept the trajectory of the horse. Too many horizontals can overwhelm an object that is moving in that same direction, so I wanted to break it up.

Now I'm adding broader strokes of color - more realistic or correct in both tint/hue/value - and paying closer attention to details and proper drawing. I do a lot of relational measuring at this stage - I'll compare the head's length (usually the first thing I firm up drawing wise) to the rider's forearms to the thigh to the neck - and just continue on building their relationships based on size.

I'm trying to build up the entire surface of the canvas simultaneously at this point. I don't want to end up with a halo-effect background (you know those ones where you can tell the background was corrected/finished after the foreground/middle of the painting). I am continuing to model the shapes and make drawing adjustments, too - like I noticed the horse's head was too small. Notice also that I've only indicated the placement of the bridle and reins - they will be the last pieces to get painted, so as to allow for smooth and loose brushwork underneath.

I'm also setting the reference photo aside mostly by now, and trying to imagine the scene in front of me. What is my time of day and how does that impact the sunlight? How will the light glance off spots? what other colors will collect in the shadows? I squint at my painting from across the studio - does it have the proper sense of depth? 

I step back and use my thumb/hand to block out different areas of the painting from across the room. Does it all work well together? that's what I'm trying to determine.

The biggest test is if the shapes balance each other out. This is a totally different concern than questioning if the subject looks like the reference - I'm studying instead the relationship of the forms in the painting, and looking for adjustments that will make for a better composition. I'm never so concerned with creating an exact replica of the photograph - we already have a nice photo, so why try to recreate it? I am using the photo as a starting point to create a moment in paint that is tangible. For instance, I made the horse's face the brightest point in the painting because the piece is about him (not the jockey's pants or the blanket number, which were equally bright in the photograph).

I continue to lay down paint, working from a large brush to a smaller one in the final layers. I also am mixing my colors using the same palette - pulling from pools mixed in a prior layer. This retains harmony throughout the painting and makes it easier to go back and touch up or modify previous marks.

And now the piece is done. Working title "#3 Warming Up," 8" x 16", acrylic on canvasboard, $529. Inquiries may come to me.

Thanks for following along with today's Preakness pARTy,

Here's to a safe trip for all,

Kim

ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

Announcing the Preakness pARTy

On Friday May 15th Linda and I will each paint from the same reference photo.

Juliet Harrison has chosen the image for us again, this time from one of her racing shots.

Here's the premise - we each have a day to complete our painting, cropping, altering, or modifying the reference photo in any way we choose.

The finished paintings will be shared on this blog. I plan to photograph mine as I progress, and will build a little mini-art lesson to go along with it.

Thanks for following along!

Kim Santini

ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

Snowy Greetings

"Snowy Greetings," 12" square, chestnut Thoroughbred filly portrait, acrylic on canvasboard, $529 to the first taker. This is a tough piece to photograph - with the amped contrast and saturated complimentary colors, my camera didn't know what to do.  I may try to scan portions of the painting and piece it together in photoshop, but meanwhile inquiries may come to me.

My apologies - I didn't think to take progress shots of my painting. Well, I did, but was promptly distracted by the puddles of paint, and never had a chance to follow-up on that thought.

How did this piece come together? Well I started out with a violet underpainting (the compliment of orange), and pretty much had the drifts and swaths of snow painted in the first pass. It was lots of wet-on-wet brushwork, with the darkest violet concentrated in the space where the filly now is.

Then I sketched in her rough shape, and working from general to specific, gradually laid down smaller and smaller layers of paint.

I'm excited to see Linda's version. She is at a distinct disadvantage because she's got actual stalls to muck - I only have to ignore the sunshine illuminating all the dust bunnies in the studio.

Good times, though! Are you up for it again, Linda? I wanna throw a Preakness pARTy!!