Thursday, March 29, 2007

Curious?

So I'm back and this time it's with a WIP of a horse doing what it does best: look good. This ACEO will feature a dark horse (dark bay to be exact) and will have more of a fantasy feel to it, which is always fitting for an animal as gorgeous as the horse. Enough of my babble, onto stage one:


I'm hoping, dear reader, that this first part is obvious. I've put in my oh-so intricate initial drawing and I've plunked in the eyes, nostril and ears. Not much more to comment on at this point and that means it's time to go onto stage two:


So now I've gone and marked in more of the darkest darks. There aren't many light spots on a dark bay horse and the only "light" areas I've marked are around the nostril and on the point of the shoulder. For my darks I've added in some indigo blue (the neck, cheek and part of the forelock) because 1- cool colours recede and 2- I feel it adds a nice richness that you simply can't get just by laying down plain ol' black. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is my ACEO so I'll do what I darn tootin' well please.
Country bumpkin mouthing off aside, time to have a look at stage three:


Now I've gone and added in the mane and focused more on getting his face in and emphasizing the highlights and bone structure. I've laid down some black over top of my indigo blue (remember, I'm not a heavy-handed wielder of the coloured pencil) and I've also put some black cherry into my shadows. Richness is the name of the game for this one because, really, what's a fantasy horse without some colourful decadence?

I'll finish this one off tomorrow as something interesting happened (for me, anyway) with this one as I was closing in on the finish line. Want to know what it was? Check back tomorrow and I'll tell you...

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