Horse Paintings by Carrie L. Lewis

Posted By Carrie L. Lewis on January 26, 2010

Keyodee Star took another step forward today with the next glaze. I worked on the background again, this time on the exterior walls of the stall.

I confess to having hesitated getting to this stage. The first glaze went very well and the overall painting has proceeded so well, that there is the fear that a major screw up is lurking somewhere in the darker recesses of the studio. The theory is that if I don’t work on a painting, I can’t screw it up.

Yesterday and today, I’ve taken myself by the collar, dragged me (almost kicking and screaming!) into the studio, parked me in front of the easels and … painted.

Yesterday was less of a personal struggle than today was. All I had to do yesterday was paint an opaque background on a standard portrait. No big deal. If I did happen to mess up, it would be easy enough to wipe off the mess, oil the panel to remove the last traces, then try again. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, the results were not only satisfactory, but excellent. I still like the work the day after and that’s the real test of success.

With Keyodee Star, though, cleaning up messes isn’t quite as easy. A clean rag and oil will remove fresh paint with very little residue. But there is potential for unwanted staining in transparent glazes. Color choices and application techniques need to be chosen more thoughtfully and paint applied more carefully.

Add to that an unusual shade of light green to mix and there were some significant doubts going into today’s work.

The first job of the day, though, was to oil the panel with walnut oil/alkyd medium, then wipe off the excess with a piece of paper towel.

The colors I chose to mix the initial glaze of green were Viridian Green and Cerulean Blue. The traces of red in the M. Graham Oils Cerulean Blue grayed the Viridian Green just enough to produce a nice, even green.

That color was applied with either an angle Golden Talkon shader or with my fingers. I kept the application thin and transparent and thinned the color layer even more thinly by rubbing it over each section of the background. I didn’t rub the paint layer into a uniform layer, though, instead leaving some areas a little thicker than others to create some variation.

When the outside wall looked right, I worked on the interior wall, this time using only the angle shader brush and applying paint in a more random pattern that left some areas untouched. Green was glazed in the cast shadows with a 20/0 round sable.

I finished work for the day by going back to the angle shader to glaze green into some areas of the mane and forelock.

The portrait will now be allowed to dry completely before the next glaze. It will most likely be a week before the next glaze can be put into place. The good news is that I may be able to do some work on the horse then! Woo-hoo!

Category: Classical Painting, Color Work, Oils, The Painting Process
Tags: Classical Painting Techniques, Flemish Technique, Horse Portraits, Oil Paintings, The Painting Process