Horsing around in color, continued

I’ve decided to change the perspective of my 4th horse in the painting.  I intend to portray it more convincingly as the trailing horse in the pack by presenting a shorter side profile and a more frontal view  the hope that the viewer will sense the horse emerging rather then just traversing across the field.

Adding the 5th horse which is mostly obscured and in the background, I have my pack of five,

The current arrangement conveys more drama and movement by taking advantage of the size differences between front and back, and the lean of the leading horse.

Time to color them.  Whinny for me, horses!

I must admit, my horses are more convincing now, 

I'll pay you more if you paint me one in color

Years ago during an Open Studio event a visitor came to my home to view my works and was interested in one that was done in black and white.  

Black and white paintings, or photography for that matter, convey a somewhat artistic interpretation. Firstly, the association to objects through the conventional color scheme is virtually eliminated. Ambiance and composition assume a more critical role. Works created with ink brushes on Xuan paper additionally rely on the nuances of the brushstroke to guide the viewer not only into the artistic aspect but also into the craftsmanship of the painting. I surmise that appreciating and enjoying black and white works of art necessitates a certain level of sophistication and imagination, not mere personal preference.

So the visitor posed a proposition, "Could you do the same painting but in color?  I'll pay you more".

The reason I'm bring this up is not because I am being a snob or needing to stand on my high horse by implying a lack of erudition from that visitor, but I actually want to try to paint my horses in color.  Same players, same arrangements.

After all, I am just horsing around.  

Here comes the leader of the pack,

Next up,

My leading horse is leaning in more aggressively now, and is painted bigger to give it more of a proximity presence.

Now comes the third horse, 

Making it better

I like my painting better after I applied the multitude versus singles alteration to the grouping of my horses.  However I still find some glaring booboos, one of which is this particular animal,

I must have expanded its chest as an afterthought, attempting to make the horse appear more robust.  The right front leg is now out of place.  In the attempt to line-up the leg with the chest by adding to what I had painted, I inadvertently created a fearsome arm wrestler with uneven arm sizes.

The more I look at it the more I notice this annoying glitch.  It is like when we are told not to look at someone's huge zit on the forehead, that's the only thing we land our eyes on.

After days of brainstorming, I come up with a clever solution.  I think.

I am going to add some dilapidated fencing around the horses, as if they are held in a pen.  I am using the fence posts and the crossbars to hide my mistakes and to divert attention.

The yelping dog is an afterthought.  The agitating canine is reacting to the equine pack trying to escape the broken corral, lending a hand to the storyline of this painting. 

And my friend digitizes my painting to this,

I love it!

Playtime-Second Half

My spaghetti squash with calligraphy has been drying under a slight weight to prevent the shell from curling up too much.  It is time to commence the second half of the game.

I intend to etch out the calligraphy by following the brushstrokes with a cutting tool.  My plan is to have the writings appear to be hollowed out fonts.  My Dremel is summoned for the job.  I am going to use an Rotozip bit, assuming that is the correct tool for my fun game.

I am getting a quick lesson in humility.  My assumption is not quite correct.  The Rotozip bit is too harsh for the brittle thin skin of the dried squash and takes out a whole chunk of the shell before I can cuss.  I believe my bit was designed for drywalls. 

The alternative is a burring bit.  I should have used that in the first place.  The project takes longer since the burring bit does not remove as much material as readily as the cut out bit.  The hollowed out lines are much better defined though.  I suppose there's always a trade off.  So am I a dentist now?

I have a piece of red craft paper handy so I used that as an underlayment to the hollowed out writings.

I like what I am seeing.  I am going ahead with more pieces of the squash.

I am also curious to see what the cut outs look like when light passes through the openings,

I think the light show is much more captivating than the carving itself.

This is fun.

Someone asks me why I do this.  Is there a purpose in all this?

"I do it just because I can"

Still goofing off

I am going to try to paint my horses again.  I haven't given up yet.

My last attempt at painting 4 horses was ok.  One of the horses looked deformed, afflicted with osteomalacia.  I promised myself to do better.  Time to redeem myself.

I shall concentrate more on form and gesture this time around.  A silhouette comes to mind.

The equine on the right seems a bit off. Its shoulder looks strange, and its head is placed too far to the right. Or maybe its front legs are too far to the left?

Too late to cry over spilled milk, I am forging on.

 

The front left leg of the last horse still looks unnatural, I still need to study how to place the bend.

Then an idea comes to me, I should insert a horse behind the first two horses, to diffuse the bad shoulder of the second horse.

In this composition, the head of one horse protrudes from behind the left horse, utilizing its tail and rear quarter to modify the shoulder line of its adjacent counterpart. The three horses appear to have merged into a cohesive entity. Composition wise we have a multitude of three contrasting with two separate ones, fitting in with the idea of variation and harmony  

While the initial appearance may be somewhat chaotic or jumbled, the composition is functionally effective. It presents three horses grouped together, followed by two additional horses. This arrangement imbues the work with energy and dynamic motion.

I will use this formula for my future attempts. 

Horsing around, h(g)oofing off

I painted a lone horse last time.  Time to paint a few of them together.

I started out with a horse leaning in on a turn,

Added a companion trying to follow,

Somewhere during the process I lost control of the wetness of my brush.

The third horse presented more of a side profile,

and to bring up the rear,

I must had gotten tired since this was close to mid-night.  I inadvertently gave my last horse osteomalacia or rickets!  Let's hope it doesn't get euthanized. 

I'll do better, I promise. 

Time for bed. 

Playtime

Painting is playtime for me.  I try not to take it too seriously since my livelihood is not dependent on it. It has always been an exercise of exploration and fun with occasional frustration mixed in.

Recently I harvested a spaghetti squash, which is known as Shark-fin-squash where I grew up.  Instead of turning to mush like pumpkin when cooked, this squash has flesh with distinct filaments.  The strands look like spaghetti, hence the name; or like strands of shark fin used in shark fin soup.  The squash itself has a delicate sweet taste to it and is quite refreshing, unlike the over-the-top, decadent shark fin soup.  I halved the squash, scraped off the seeds and boiled the squash to soften the flesh.  After the softened flesh was scooped out and set aside for cooking, I was left with the tough skin of the squash.

Normally I would have put the skin, or the shell of the squash in the compost to feed a new generation of plants but I felt a sudden urge to play with them this time.

I wanted to do some calligraphy on them.

I did not anticipate the difficulties that were presented.  First off I just picked a brush that was laying around, which was not particularly suitable for calligraphy.  The most challenging part was the fact that the surface was not flat, it was dome shaped.  Unlike writing on a piece of flat paper, it was difficult to maintain a proper angle between the brush and the squash.  The result were a lot of glancing blows where a proper brush tip was impossible to maintain and I wasn't able to control the nudging and pressing of the brush.  I subsequently changed to a brush that I use for calligraphy (small piece on the left),

I gained new respect and appreciation for artisans who paint or write on vases, bowls etc.

I am not sure about what to do with this episode of my playtime but I had fun doing something out of the ordinary.  For me anyways.

For now I'll let the shells dry and see what I can cook up later on.