"Drum" horse drawing and scrimshaw

Approved! :-)


"Drum"
(American Paint Horse)
colored pencil and graphite on tan Stonehenge paper
5x7 inches
sold



"Drum"
(American Paint Horse)
multicolor scrimshaw on pre-ban elephant ivory
18x25mm
sold

November 11 work in progress: horse drawing

A side note about the leaf photos, I think I will go ahead and just post them all at once later on, after the leaf falls off the tree. This once a day thing doesn't really float my boat very well. Unfortunately, the chosen leaf is not turning a glorious red color as I had hoped, it's going the yellow and brown route. Lovely, but not as exciting. About half the leaves on that tree seem to go red, the other half go yellow. So I'll photograph a red one too. Stay tuned.

How bout a horse in the mean time.


Sorry, this is an AWFUL photograph, because I took it tonight, and it's dark. Ewwww it's not really that color.

It's pretty much done, pending a few things:
1) I need to sign it
2) It needs to "bloom." I heard you say "huh?" Wax-based colored pencils, when used at high levels of saturation, will produce a cloudy "bloom" over some areas of the drawing as the wax surfaces (that's why the black areas on the horse look kinda cloudy and dull right now). This tends to send people into crisis mode apparently. Relaaaaaxxxx. It's no big deal. People get crazy about redrawing and then applying fixative right away. Uh uh, bad idea. When you finish a colored pencil drawing, put it away for a couple days, or a week. Stick it somewhere safe, and let that baby bloom! Embrace the bloom! And then, ever so gently, wipe if off (kleenex, blending stumps, whatever). Then spray with fixative. But let the darn thing bloom and get it out of its system (so to speak), drives me nuts when people get all worked up about trying to "prevent" it.
3) This is perhaps the most important thing here in step three, my client needs to approve it before I can call it officially done. And here's where I wish all people had internet access. Alas, this means I schedule a meeting...

November 10 work in progress: horse drawing

I obviously have way too much fun taking pictures while I'm doing this. No, its not done!!!

November 2 work in progress: horse drawing

It's easier to snap a few pics than it is to stop and scan stuff while I'm working, so... crappy pics instead of pretty scans. There will be a pretty scan when I'm done. :-) Oh yeah and these aren't all from today.


Oh the many colors that make up black. I know some people have this big hangup about not ever using a black colored pencil or black paint or whatever. Meh... I don't use it by itself, let's put it that way. Alone, it's a very flat black. It takes a LOT of layers of color to make a rich black, but I have no qualms about using black itself as one of those layers. Makes perfect sense to me. Some people won't touch it. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

Oh yeah, and the reference photo below illustrates why one should never rely too heavily on a photograph. Can you say distortion?

October 29 work in progress

Dear Colored Pencils, I have missed you so much. It's been a long time since we've spent time together, and I'm glad we are finally hanging out again.

(YES!!! A drawing!!! I finally started today.)


"Drum" (American Paint Horse)
5 by 7 inches
colored pencil and graphite on tan Stonehenge paper
commission (sold)

Drum was sweet old boy who I knew for a couple of years. I used to take care of him when his owner was out of town. He was a gentleman, a horse who had an accomplished life of shows and exhibitions and trail rides. He died last winter in his mid 20s, dearly loved and dearly missed by his owner.

I will also be doing a scrimshaw pendant portrait of Drum in the near future.

ps- yes that lovely profile pic is a Halloween special.