The Rehearsal

I have Started a 20 x 30 oil painting of three of the yearling Tbs here on the stud. I have done this underpainting a little less perfect than usual as I am trying to loosen it all up a little. I have decided to do most of the background first to keep the edges of the horses tidy. Compositionally this piece is not the greatest, but I am hoping that it will be Ok :)

Newest commission finished

Meet Kai, a beautiful German Shepherd.

This is 16 x 12" coloured pencil on mountboard.

I hope the clients husband doesnt stumble across my blog before tommorrow, lol

Finished!

I can not tell you how pleased I am to have finished this painting :)
The photos are really rubbish though and it looks a hundred times better in life. I am now very excited about going to the framers with this one and setting it off in a nice frame.

Maybe Im winning

This is changing by the minute but I can see a glimmer of light (I think) The photos are so poor its much better (the handler esp.. in life!)

Almost there

Just the handler left to finish...and am seeking advice from my betters (I hope) in how to fix it!
This is a poor photo :( but it willl give an idea.

Do you think.....

....Anyone will notice if I swap the handler for a shetland pony????

Grrr @ people painting!

I am having a nightmare with this Handler. Every time I fiddle with it, I go to bed happy...wake up in the morning, look at it and go GRRRRRRRRRR! The annoying thing is that I am fairly happy with everything else, but she just spoils it. It lost a likeness of the girl about 4 days ago, lol, have given up on that! now just trying to make her look normal! (Its a forehead nose chin thing, lol) The relationship between her and the horse is now wrong too but unfortunately its too late to totally move them. Onward! Still work on the horse to do today.

Still going...

This is now at the stage of going over everything again, though still leaving the finest details for finishing off. The stirrup area and Jockey still needs work, and the handlers jacket. It feels like I have been painting this one for ever!!

Some alteration on the handlers position yesterday..and a lot more cursing my painting skills! A long way yet to go....

Still plugging away at Rare Malt

I have had a few hiccups with this, i have put the first layer on the face of the handler but need to colour her a bit now, she looks deathly pale! I am not a portrait painter and people are not my strong point! The photo of this looks odd as some parts are dry and dull and other shiny wet. Still plenty of layers on the horses head to go which will even it all up (ie darks on his muzzle) I am also altering the trees to the left to omit the crescent shape that has appeared!

more horsey

Trees and crowds!

A layer of thin paint has been applied with a fan brush for the trees and I have put in the crowd. I have done this quite detailed, but I am only doing this one layer, hoping that when the horse is complete it will sing out. I also want to signify the hustle and bustle (and all the colours!) which I love about the ref picture. The colour is bleached on the left hand side of the photo it is much more balanced in life!

It took me about 5 hours to do this much today EEK!

Rare Malt - Update

Spent a few hours on the first layers of glazing, which turned out to be less glazed and more fine detail, lol. I just cant help fiddling even in the early stages. ..... Still a loooong way to go though :)

The blue glaze is the first layer of sky, It looks a bit random at the moment but the tree foliage will cover a lot of it.

New oil painting

I spent about 8 hours on this yesterday but I am pleased to have done the grisaille underpainting in just one hit.

The peoples faces almost drove me to distraction, hence why they are more detailed than i had intended at this stage.

Looking forward to the colour glazes coming in now!

The horse is 'Rare Malt' a filly that ran her first race at Newmarket last Saturday. The jockey is Hayley Turner.