Going to Need Another Horse

Before I started on the background of this twin canvas, I searched through color swatches to see what colors I'd like to pair up with Copper Leaf. I don't always do this, but sometimes I force myself to make decisions ahead of time so that they don't trip me up later during "the process." Being wild and free is like soaring; if you pause with a question or hesitate, you fall back down to earth and have to wait for another breeze of possibility to take you back where you once were. (I'm glad you understand me.) When it comes to painting, sometimes the hardest part is simply putting paint on the palette. If you are like me, or Chidi Anagonye, when it comes to indecisiveness, a limited paint palette can be one's friend.

Sometimes I blame things on the weather. My artwork, is no different.

It rained again in the summer afternoon which helped my paint mesh. However, I do feel like this background was a bit overworked; perhaps I added too much splatter in the top center. That's a thing I do sometimes. I'm working on it. I then compare this to the last horse to see what needs to be done.

I decide adding Copper Foil will brighten things up enough, but first want to figure out a horse sketch so I don't overdue the leafing process. Sketching is not my strong suit. I take my time and eventually get the size about right. I don't want it to be too big or small compared with my first horse. Often times I can't judge this until my entire sketch is in front of me. C'est la vie!

This is an example of me struggling to fit the horse properly.

After sketching the horse directly on my canvas many times just to erase it off which started to take a toll on the background, I decided to do a few smaller sketch versions of it on paper I had handy. This may seem like a waste of time, and it probably is, but it also helps you warm-up to the ultimate paint marathon that is ahead of you. Like studying for a test.

(Late Warning: I hope fragments don't bother you. You may want to avoid my blogs if you do because I enjoy using them when I write. I took too many poetry classes in college. Forgive me.)

After I got the sketch on my canvas I added copper foil. I went a little crazy with it to be sure. I gave it a day to sink in, still wasn't too cool with it, so I added a salt and vinegar solution to create a bit of a patina and left it on there overnight. The result is what you see in the picture below- basically the luster was toned down a bit. I felt like the copper was more overpowering than the gold version as it was.

Here is the horse a little over halfway done. I was using a reference photo of a young buckskin. When I left then came back a week later to work on it, I realized it was mostly wrong. I couldn't see beyond a zebra. And I love zebras but look forward to painting one another time. I felt the need to warm up the skin a bit and I wanted longer hair similar to the white horse so I changed my reference photo and used another horse entirely to finish off the painting. Ultimately I used one for the pose and another for the coloring and details.

Since the short hair was already up in the air and crazy, I figured I'd have to paint over some of it. In life and in painting, these decisions can be hard. Sometimes if feels like backtracking, but in reality, you are just getting closer to your goal. My friend and fellow artist, Daniel, was kind enough to suggest that I didn't need to do that, but I knew he was just being nice. Although I lack a photo of this, my poor horse here had an incredible hair style that became out of control: Rod Stewart meets Tina Turner. It had to be done. I boldly painted over the top crazy bit of the mane after tip-toeing around it all day. It felt good really once it was done. I then patched up the background, carefully reconstructing it with similar like layers, then finished up the hair once again.

What I did next was revisit the Copper Leaf. I wanted to incorporate some of the dark teal background somehow. Instead of simply painting on some of it, I mixed in highlights of Variegated Metal Leaf that contained blue and green tones to parts of the patina copper on my canvas.

18" x 36"

As you can see, I lost some of the vivid cantaloupe background color, but I think it is just as well. This horse chilled out a bit with age. Perhaps the lighting has something to do with it. I should check on that...

Thank you kindly for reading,

-B