Migration - Day Six

Day six was all about trees. Since I have no real reference here, my only plan is to just "go with it".  The canvas is dry enough to remove anything I don't care for.

 Starting point from yesterday

Nuts! While adding structure, I ended up with (2) branches running parallel - too obvious.

 

My solution was to convert my larger left branch into a separate tree with the idea it would project forward establishing another dimension layer.......typical situation in this environment.

I like my upper structure.

Baseline is shaping up.

Studio shot from my desk.

7

This is where I ended up at days end. Not a bad photo.. fairly close to how it looks in morning light. Out of steam.....time to play ball with Riley and cop a nap!

Later....

Migration- Day five

I noticed some colours got muddy at the base of my new co-star.....colour will fix that...could become a plus before the day is out......perhaps not too!

Object - cover the white canvas

895-5 detail - mud is improving a bit!

This session went faster than expected. I ended up with some time to restock the refrigerator and work on a little colt just above my black stallion...I also used lamp black more that once in this painting with good results. Not a colour I get to use often anymore. I like the sharp contrast here, plus he stops you from leaving the canvas....wonderful left anchor to Migration. My tree baseline found a solution along the way as I knew it would.

 895/894 Cleaned up version of panels 1 & 2 of Migration

Time to study the overall painting.  It has lots of areas to work on and it's dry, so anything I don't like can be easily removed. One of the challenges will be my foreground tree - may have to cover some stuff I really like for the greater good......I like how the base works tho.

Later...........

Migration - Day Four

I only had the morning to paint so I stayed within my red line goal plan. Five more horses are now more than blocked in......only 3 or 4 more to go on this panel. Once they are all in place I can fine-tune each one. I'm starting to think more about how my foreground trees will be treated at the baseline. At this point they could land anywhere amongst my feature horses or be concealed by ground fog....mmmm.

895-4 panel 1 & 2 of 3

SOME DETAILS

 

 Horses merging into next panel - clearly more fine-tuning ahead

Our star of this panel - may have to make him glow a bit!

 Red line goal plan

I have at least (3) more feature horses left in this group plus sort out my trees base.  Tomorrow will be an important session because decisions will have to be made or emerge on their own which they sometimes do.

Later.........

Migration - Day three

Another grey day with lots of rain.....studio lights again. I filled in my red line plan by starting early. Went a full (8) hours painting background horses, fog and messed with trees; basically working background. In this situation I don't want to over detail my horses so they are a bit more than blocked in.....some could get scrapped or moved, colours changed; all depending on what happens in my foreground in the coming days.

895-3 Migration - 1 & 2 of 3

Detail

The foreground trees are doing their job of creating the illusion of scale and depth as my distant horses make their way to the main herd.

Red line plan for tomorrow

Up until now, my time was spent working on background adding interest leading to my main players.

Later....

Migration - Day Two

I came down with a flu bug a few days ago but being male decided to ignore it! Luckily it wasn't a bad painting day, about 5 hours, my typical day, only I started earlier than normal. It was dark and rainy all day so exterior light was useless. As it turned out, good, because colour matching was easier with my connecting panel, plus my palette is still fresh in my mind.

895-2 Migration - panel 1 & 2 of 3

There are many advantages of  big paintings. They allow room to move along faster than normal. Shapes form easier too. As you can see I'm almost down to my far horizon. The painting is open enough, so I can still move around my trees and enhance my fog effect at will.

Detail showing my painting plan for tomorrow.

My red lines give me a basic starting point in the morning and my painting goal for the day. The foreground clump of trees is an unknown commodity right now....how much and how focused will it be or need to be? Time will tell.........I just know it needs to be there because its a very important scale marker if I want to engage my viewer with a feel of being there....the closer I make these trees the better.

Later....

The mood struck - Migration left panel - day one

I woke up thinking about this painting! Like an unfinished book, I got curious about the ending!

I

 Stretch a panel 66x60

Hughes Easel-setup

 good vertical movement

Good side movement

The Hughes easel is everything and more than advertized, a very capable contraption, very user friendly, almost intuitive to your needs as a painter!

Key player plan

Red line #4 & #5 will establish a triangle composition leading to a group of horses, each with a key player

 Sepia connection - beginning of a triangle composition using my horses in combination with the sun

#4 leads to my most important player amongst all horses on this panel

I'll post progress daily.

Later....,

A few weeks worth of paint and canvas

I was in the mood to paint something on the large size, perhaps one similar to the small scale study below. My original plan was to use (4) 62x48 panels finishing out at around 62x192...yep 16 feet! Sadly my study sold before I got a chance to act on it.

SMALL STUDY

 738 - private collection

Today a 62x48 panel seems rather small since I have a better studio set-up allowing me greater latitude. I still like my original concept, but not certain I'm up to 16 feet of glory at the moment...There is another possibility here, I do have a clean 66x60 canvas with a good frame available. I could design a painting consisting of  (3) 66x60 panels forming an almost seamless triptych with the middle one as an independent painting giving me a "bailout option"; also use of an existing inventory frame. Not particularly a bad idea since I did want a very large impact painting in the first place. Of course one of the real pluses of triptych is ease of handling and shipping. Could get my cake and eat it too! I was also thinking more of a landscape than a seascape. I could play more with atmosphere and fog which I'm into right now.

 SMALL WARM UP -  NO RELATION TO FINAL PAINTING

893 Spring Waters 24x24 oil on linen (3-5-14)

BACK AT GROUND ZERO with a plan & CONCEPT DRAWING

 (3) panels 66x60 or 66x180 (Scale 1/2" = 1'-0")

CENTER PANEL DETAIL

Center panel - 66x60

FINAL PAINTING

 894 Migration 66x60 oil on linen (3-23-14)

PROGRESS STAGES

DAY ONE

After studying my sepia wash (Sienna with Neo Megilp) I added a red line where I wanted a second group in the upper distance to start joining the main heard at the bottom

DETAIL

I like this better - it adds more opportunity and interest; distant horses making a sharp turn which emanate from around the distant trees from the next panel on the right.....not in my original drawing so a few quick marks will hold that thought.

 Big canvas so it has to be carefully staged for painting times.

SECOND DAY

 894-2a

894-2b

 894-2

A remarkably good painting day - never went into the sky after this session

THIRD DAY - RED LINE STAGE PLAN 1&2

 

Stage (1) left is where I'll start and only start stage (2) if  time and energy permit - as you can see I could easily break this up into (3) sessions

 894-3

Merging the left tree bank into my sky took most of the morning. I would need a complete afternoon to finish my first stage because it includes a small herd of distant ponies which could be time consuming......so I took advantage of a natural stopping point just at the top of the herd.

FOURTH DAY

894-4

At the end of the day my right trees are in place - not sure they are finished yet, but was tired of messing with them! I shifted my energy to the all important distant perspective line leading to my foreground ponies with so-so results.......I can already see more thought is needed.....bit of nighttime study.

FIFTH DAY - HORSES

894-5 Detail

I'm kinda feeling my way here - each horse takes some time, plus also trying to develop my marsh lands, where water will and won't be. Tricky, working in small space amongst the horses...not a lot of progress to show for a full days work. The distant perspective seems to work better, but no clear plan yet!

SIXTH DAY - MORE HORSES

 Red line plan - #1 & #2..again I really have (3) possible stopping points

 894-6

I had a full day and things worked out reasonably well, so I got (4.5) horses in place. The painted middle horse still needs more attention....no point fooling with it until all my players are in place.

DAY SEVEN - MORE HORSES

894-7

The (3) bottom left horses were time consuming - the white one is too harsh for my overall key. I'll deal with it at the end.

DAY EIGHT - TWO MORE HORSES

 894-8 Detail (lower section)

My white horse is in context with the rest - still too center stage......a bit of a battle between my bit player and my real star below

894-8 Detail - he'll get dressed up a bit more because he is my star

DAY NINE - BACK TO DISTANT HORSES

894-9 End of day

My attention was on my distant mid group of horses emerging from marsh waters - it was a very impromptu move on my part...hope I don't regret it later on.

 894-9 Detail - bit more detail on his markings

DAY TEN

894-10

I worked more on bringing my horses into harmony with each other, including darkening my white horse...feels right, my eye ends with my star, so I signed it! 

894-10 Detail

Bit more light on his cream markings and deeper blacks confirms my star is looking like a star, my star is not exactly stage center....perhaps one day he will be!

The finished painting ended up taking several weeks. It has open doors right and left, if the mood strikes, to continue on. I also didn't over exploit the ground fog either. I want that door to remain open as well. It's the possibilities left that will cause the next moves and more importantly if I do, my star is in the right place!


Later........

A weeks worth of paint and canvas

The last week or so I've been working on a rather large wild pony painting, trying to finish for an ad deadline, now passed. I knew going in it was an ambitious project with only 10 days. Typically as a painting progresses it takes on a life of it's own and how well we follow determines the outcome. I've learned over a lot of paintings, following is a better course of action. At some point the music stops and you get to sign it.

Catching the essence of your subject on canvas is the big reward. If it feels right to the eye from any distance, chances are good you'll be rewarded with a strong painting.

Wild horses are very cool painting subjects, a variety of wonderful patterns. All you need is the correct shape for each movement. It can be exaggerated and still work. Filling in seems to take on a natural flow with each movement. Muscle seems to emerge in the right places via light and shading....just has to feel right!

Progress detail from 894 Migration

Tweaked

 And tweaked again

Later.....