photo a

photo b

photo c

photo d

I work in transparent oil colors, so I don't always have the luxury of making significant changes once I have begun painting. Therefore, a great deal of time and effort has to be put into the planning, design and drawing of the work.

As any artist will tell you, the first thing you have to do before any pencil hits any paper is to "see" your subject. I don't like working with someone else's photographs because it means I don't have firsthand experience with my subject. I look at the horse live and conduct at least one photo shoot. In this example, my subject is Breeder's Cup Distaff champion Adoration. (photo a)

Watching her go through her paces and walking around her gave me a real understanding of her size and substance. She is a big, broad mare with a gentle, inquisitive personality and, as I soon discovered, one who can easily dispose of a two-pound bag of carrots. She also has an exquisite blood bay color that could easily become lost in a photograph.

After looking through the photos I use thumbnail sketches to decide the composition and lighting of the painting. Sometimes, if I have an overabundance of photos, I use Sharpie markers directly onto the photographs for ideas on how the light and shadow can fall.

Once the composition is selected, it's blown up to the actual size of the painting (usually between 20" x 30" and 30" x 40".) Unlike most artists, who like to draw directly on their canvas, I approach the painting as an illustrator would; revisions upon revisions on top of more revisions. First, I map out the proportions of the horse on thin, onion skin paper. (photo b) Not only does it have excellent tooth for pencil drawing, but also it is translucent enough so I can lay clean sheets and make modifications directly on top of old drawings.

Camera lenses, shadows and even a horse's coat color can distort their true shape in photographs. This is where knowledge of conformation becomes essential. While proportion and angles are essential, some clients prefer minor flaws cosmetically corrected in a portrait. Some immature horses (especially fillies) need to be filled out a bit more, but that doesn't change their bone or balance.

Using more layers of onion skin paper, I continue to refine the drawing in parts and as a whole (photo c) until I come up with the final line drawing and a full size value drawing of the horse. (photo d) This is what I show the client for approval before embarking on the final painting.

Go to Part II