An equine photo shoot

Not a very glamorous photo shoot as I didn't give them any time to primp and preen, but the weather was so gorgeous on Saturday that I had to go take some photos. I actually went out to feed the horses, and they were running around kicking up their heels and playing, so I ran in the house for the camera, and wouldn't you know? When I came back, all they wanted to do was eat and stare at the camera.

All shots are straight from the camera except for cropping.

One of the first photos of the day and one of my favorites - my beautiful Sawyer.

Don't let the bored stare fool you - he was scared to death of the beeping and clicking of the camera.

Here's a good example of how shaggy he is. Would you recognize him as the same horse in the Sawyer drawing?

Sawyer has two pint-sized pals in his pen now. One of them, Tango, was the top model of the day with some great close-up shots.

Checkers, on the other hand, was more interested in eating. Here you can see the size difference - note that Sawyer's not a large horse either.

More of Tango. I love what the strong wind was doing with his hair.

By far the best pose I got of Sawyer. If only I'd had a clean background to photograph against.

And little Checkers demonstrating the wind in his hair.

We have two other horses on the place too, Rebel and Tex. You can see them behind Sawyer in one of the shots, but Tex is pretty flighty and not at all mannerly, so I didn't feel much like dealing with him.

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - not much

Very little time spent drawing this past week. It was a combination of quitting my current job, interviewing for another, doing some outside work in the beautiful spring weather, and getting ready for my first show of the year this coming weekend.
The only project I worked on at all was the zebra ACEO.

The good news is that as of the end of March, I'll be free from my current job of 30+ hours a week with an hour commute each day!
The job I'm expecting to be offered will be only 15 hours a week plus filling in for others as needed. That will mean a lot more time for my art!

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - a zebra and a farm

Didn't get a lot of work done yesterday on my art, but I did get lots of work done around the farm, so at least I felt productive.

I darkened the stripes on the zebra ACEO. I might make a couple changes, especially around the eye.

After a whole bunch of composition sketching of the farm scene, I picked my three favorites and put them on the final assignment sheet. Now, I have to narrow it down to just one to start doing value sketches with.

The little shed is supposed to be the center of interest. Which sketch do you think does the best job of leading your eye to that shed?

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - bison, a new ACEO, and lessons

Worked on lots of different projects yesterday.

First off, I had to get going on the ACEO for March, so I spent some time deciding what to do and getting it lightly sketched onto the card. I'd like to get some work done on the bison this month, so I chose a fairly simple subject (as far as shading will go).

Can you tell what it is?

Speaking of the bison, I worked on him a little more too. Printed off a reference photo that showed the brisket and upper front legs better, so I made some changes to them. Then I started with the shading on the back end. The hairy front end intimidates me a little, so I'm starting off easy. I also watched "Dances with Wolves" this weekend and paid special attention during the buffalo hunt scene to see how they move.

Then a lot of work for my next art school assignment. I had to do two practice sketches showing that I understand the concept of making one object stand out in a group. Apparently, I forgot to take a photo of the first one which was a group of spools of thread, all standing up except one laying on its side. Here's the other:

Which one is your eye drawn to?

And for the final assignment for this lesson, we're given a photograph of a farm scene and told to compose it so that the shed in the middle is the center of interest. There's three parts to this assignment - 3 line sketches, 3 value sketches, and the final project. I've just done one line sketch which is largely a copy of the photo except I made it horizontally aligned, cutting out a lot of empty sky and grassy foreground. It's kind of hard to see because I had to darken the photo a lot since I sketch so lightly.

I'll be doing a bunch more of those little sketches in the coming week. I'll choose my three best to include with the assignment and the best one to move onto value sketches. I have to admit that while I love farm/country subjects, this one is not inspiring me, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what to change about it.