Bill and Royal Delta finished......

Well,  obviously, I have finished Bill Mott and Royal Delta!  Bad blogger!!! 

I figured I would just post the rest of the progression and then move on!  The last photo is a pic of how I use my iPad for working.  I found a great armature on line for less than $75.00 that has been wonderful.  Sometimes the glare on the iPad bothers me, mostly when working on dark subjects.  The arm does swivel so I can position it for the least amount of glare. But I have also gone back to using photos for working on faces. And I do love being able to blow up portions of the photo to get the details.  I also installed photoshop on my iPad so manipulation of color and light/dark is easy without having to run back to my desktop.  I have seen a few artists online that have mounted a spare monitor to the wall close to their easel that looks great... I would have to rearrange my studio to utilize the one small wall to do the mounting... I have floor to ceiling glass windows on 3 sides of the studio, which I adore for the light and view of the outside world... but not great for mounting monitors! The other wall has french doors and a stone wall from the fireplace.... there is about 5 feet of wall in between! But something to think about!

 Sorry I have been away for so long... been a trying year! Besides my mother being in long term nursing care here,  I was in a car accident which totaled my car...   Not hurt, but banged up and shook up! Had to deal with insurance companies and getting a new car....  :/   And my husband is planning on retirement in October!  Sort of dreading that! Its like D-day!! Invasion of the husband!  I work out of the home and it is going to be very interesting when that happens!  I maybe on here venting soon!

Royal Delta and Bill Mott WIP #3 and #4 plus detail

Her are a few more WIP's of Royal and Bill. Plus a detail of Bill's hand.  A lot of emotion is in that pat of the hand… so it was important to get it right! And hands are hard!!!  A man's arm was kind of interesting to do too...  to show the hairs on his arm without making it look dirty.  I am so pleased with the way it came out!  One of the tricks I tell young artists about doing something a little different for them, is to "do what you see, not what you know". That especially goes for colors. If you have trouble figuring out a color, it is sometimes helpful to get a neutral gray card. Cut a small window in it. Then you can hold it up to your picture to help you identify the color.. without being influenced by what is around it.  Oh and my other favorite tip... "less is more"… keep it simple so you do not draw attention it an awkward area.

Bill and Royal Delta

 

18"X24"pastel on PastelMat

Even though I have not been posting, I have been working... so I have a lot of work to share! This is the companion piece to "Royal Delta".  Bill Mott was Royal's trainer.  Bill is an amazing trainer and is in the racing hall of fame. He has trained MANY horses. But  Royal Delta was special… not only was she a phenomenal athlete, but she is a wonderful horse.  The reference photo was taken by a talented photographer (Pat Hammel) who works for Bill.  It was taken on the day she shipped out for retirement after a spectacular racing career.  A very emotional day.  The original shot is full body…. I opted to crop.  I wanted to capture the sentiment of the event and the full body shot just was more info than was necessary.

I decided to go with a blue back ground rather than the pinkish one on Royal's portrait… just did not think Bill would look that good in pink!!  

Tucker

O.K…… I have been a bad poster!!!  Between the holidays, work and Mom…. need I say more!  But on top of that I bit the bullet and added a new puppy to the family!  We have been a one dog family for over a year now… for the last 30 years we have always had 2 dogs.  I saw a really cute puppy that my dog rescue friends had online and thought I would take the leap!  My other dog is 9 and starting to have some arthritis issues and I think he is just kind of lonely.  If I had waited much longer, a puppy would have been too hard on him.  The puppy, Tucker, has been great and Remi loves him!!!  He is pretty smart and is already house broke!… mostly!  My first heinz 57 ever!  Grew up with Cocker Spaniels and as an adult we have had a  Weimaraner and 4 German Shorthaired Pointers.  Tucker's mom was a brown/tan sheltie/shepherd cross and the father is unknown. He is black and white and initially looked like he had some border collie in him…  now that he is here he looks more like a b&w Newfoundland but with shorter ears!!!  Anyway you look at him, he is cute!! There is a poll on how big he is going to be!! His mom was only about 25 lbs…  so I don't think we are going to be HUGE…. He is 18lbs now… at about 13 weeks!

This is a quickie gouache I did of him so I could make a thank you card for Danny and Ron's Rescue… here is what I came up with for the card.  Would still like to play around with the copy a bit… but for now, I am pleased!

 

Royal Delta FINISHED!!

Ta Da!  All done!!  I am thrilled with the way this one came out!  And I have to also thank Pat Hammel for the use of her wonderful photograph!

Royal Delta #5

Almost there….  sorry for the delay in getting this up.  I have been on a trip through the Carolinas… part business, part family.  I had 6 photo shoots in the Charlotte, N.C., area.  And I wanted to check out a new horse show facility in Tryon, N.C….  the Tyron International Equine Center. I have been hearing a lot of amazing comments on the show facilities and wanted to check out the show grounds and speak to them about displaying my work there next spring.  Well, it was amazing!  Money is being poured into this 1400 acre horse resort.  It is very well thought out and planned.  However they were not very receptive to allowing individual artists to set up at this time.  The venders area is a little on the small side for a facility this large. There are plans to expand this in the future.  They do have a local gallery on site,  Skyuka Fine Arts,  and it just so happens to be one I had exhibited my work in last spring.  I had planned to stop in and say hello on this trip…  Had a great visit and one thing lead to another and… they are now going to represent my pastel portraits!!  The owners husband  ( Richard C. Nelson) does amazing oil portraits and is with Portraits Inc.,  a national portrait agency. My oils do not light a candle to his!  But he is not an equine artist…  he will do them but prefers to do the big oil portraits…. so there is an opening for me!!!  This is the first gallery to represent me!  I have never found one that was the right fit and this one feels right.  I am very excited about the future partnership!  We have already talked prices and they are basically doubling!  Of course a large part of that is their commission.  But they will be doing all the work to get the commissions and they are going to be on the show grounds for the whole show circuit. I will be doing a portrait for them to display after the first of the year.  I also have a few ideas for some gallery pieces!  Very excited for 2015!!!

Royal Delta #4 WIP

Here is the 4th installment…  finished her body and worked right into her head.  I am really happy with the way the colors worked out on Royal's body!  It is sometimes hard to get those really rich dark colors.  And then that pop of blue in the sheen.  Here is where I end up collecting lots of pastels… some companies just have better dark colors…  Girault is my favorite for having nice dark purple/browns and red/browns. Unison also has some great dark colors but because the sticks are so short and fat it is hard to get a good sharp edge.