Sustained Investigation #2

8.5x14 in

Sustained Investigation #2:

This is the project that I created for my sustained investigation #2 which was focused on the question, "How can I capture equine movement while focusing on balance in my paintings?" This inspired me to think about the question more literally and I decided to take a movement from dressage (the type of riding I do) called a pirouette, which requires lots of balance for both horse and rider and incorporate that into my work. I felt like incorporating this balance more literally would help set it apart from my first work in a positive way and make it relate to my life more.

To create this work I first sketched the horse from photos I printed out and traced them out on the light box because I wasn't having much success trying to sketch the horse on my own. I chose to zoom and crop the image that I printed out so that the composition would be stronger and I could really make the focus of the work be on the movement of the horses lags and how they balanced. After this I painted the horse a reddish brown with acrylic paint and used a paint marker for the tail of the horse and the riders boot, saddle, and stirrup leather. I colored the spur, stirrup, and around the boot with gray colored pencil and the hooves of the horse with oil pastel. I still needed to incorporate balance in a less literal sense so I made these sections with color all throughout the image like on the riders leg and on the saddle pad as well as in the background, these are all painted with acrylic paint.

I chose to leave the spots in between where the horses legs cross over each other white because I felt like it make them pop more and gave contrast while accentuating the movement factor of the work. I am happy with the way the project turned out but I kind of wish I had chose a different combination of colors for the background and other parts because I feel like it it too close to the color of the horse and makes it stand out less.