Scott
Burdick
Oil Painting
Demonstration
painted 2003
Painting horses is no different than painting anything else since what you should essentially be thinking of is simply painting a series of shapes. Just as with painting a portrait or figure, these shapes just have to be more carefully measured for accuracy than a landscape. For this painting I first started by massing in the two largest shapes, one dark on the top of the canvas and the other light below. The elements in this painting were simple enough that I chose not to draw it out beforehand, but to go right into painting one area and work out from there, measuring and comparing each new element off the previously painted area. Though a little more challenging than working over a drawing, this is my favorite way to work if I can since I love painting directly into paint and working my shapes and edges one over the other. It is much easier to achieve fresh brushwork this way, but if you run into drawing problems then things can deteriorate quickly since your previous large shapes tend to get obliterated.
Above you can see the first horse's head emerging.
As I continue down to the chest and legs, I hold my brush straight up and down in front of my photo reference and see where each shape lines up with the head.
Here's a close-up so you can see how few shapes you really need to suggest the forms. It helps to squint your eyes often as you look at your reference to identify the simple patterns that matter. Try to keep from getting caught up in too many details, especially at the beginning, otherwise you'll tend to loose the power of the whole. In this painting I'm trying to convey movement and the structure of the horses in the strong sunlight, not to teach an anatomy lesson! You must have your goals clearly set before starting your painting since this initial inspiration will dictate everything -- how tightly or loose you want to paint, how colorful or subdued, thick or thin, etc.
Notice that each new area I reach, I first start out with the largest shape I can -- here I'm washing in the large shape of the shadow on the grass, over the top of which I will add the progressively smaller shapes.
You can clearly see the importance of going slow from one shape to the next and measuring constantly against what you've already done at this stage. Once I have the horse on the right done, it's very easy to place the forms of the second horse by simply comparing where everything lines up horizontally against the first horse. If I were to try drawing the two of these horses without using such comparisons, I'd never be able to get them exactly in proportion to each other. This is why a great deal of life drawing in charcoal is so important to painting a subject like this. Once you practice your drawing exclusively for years, that technical part of painting becomes second nature and you hardly have to consciously think about the measuring -- your hand and eye just do it as easily as my fingers go the right key on this keyboard. As I type, I'm thinking about what I'm saying rather than struggling with how to say it.
Because this is a sunlit scene I'm very careful that I'm mixing some yellow and red in my greens so that they don't deviate from the warm harmony of a sunlit scene.
And here's the final painting!
"Montana Trio" oil, 14" by 18"
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