I decided to try something new yesterday. In the interest of loosening up and getting some practice in with acrylics, I thought I'd try to do a small one hour painting.
The reference photo I used for this painting belongs to the very talented Ainslie Gilles-Patel. You can see more of her equine photos and artwork here:https://www.facebook.com/ainsliegillespatel?hc_location=ufi
For those who enjoy seeing the process, I started with a quick loose drawing. I ended up only using two brushes: a larger one for the background and a smaller one for the horse.
I laid in some basic colors to get the shape of the horse down first. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the background at this point to be honest.
I decided to go for a background that was a little brighter and bluer than the reference photo so that I could create more color contrast between the background and the orange-brown color of the horse. I blended most of the paints in advance and applied some wet-on-wet. I started with the grass first which in hindsight I think was a mistake. Next time I'll start from the top and work down.
After I got the background to a point I was happy with I went back and picked up the edges on the horse and started adding some detail. Getting all the colors right and laid in with broad strokes was a bit of a challenge for me. I had trouble with the highlights and the stomach especially.
I reworked the orange tones and the highlights over and over again. The nice thing about acrylics is that they dry fast. I noticed though that I was over my 1 hour mark so I worked the tail and focused on the areas I was most unhappy with.
All in all I was pretty happy with where it ended up. My goal was to loosen up and work a quick painting, and I feel like I did that. I had fun with the new approach and I'm happy with the color intensity and contrast. I think I'll do one of these again at some point in the near future.
