Last week I spent an afternoon with a horse named Jim. Peter Van Dyck invited me to sit in on his animal drawing class at PAFA while the horse was scheduled to be there, as I had expressed interest in this opportunity last semester. I love drawing animals, and horses are so "architectural" that it's a special pleasure to draw them. Last time I painted a horse I was sitting out in a field broiling and swatting stinging insects, so having a horse come on in to the great indoors was a real treat!
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Jim's arrival via freight elevator was a thrill! He himself was perfectly calm.
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My first study...unfinished as the model decided to stop grazing.
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My second study, very unfinished but I like how I caught that Jim was tiring. After a few hours of standing he had sort of "sunk" in a bit, in his back and at his hocks (right word? I mean what look like his ankles.) And his whole expression became somewhat resigned.
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Somebody just asked, so yeah, these are quick little oil sketches done from life. That was the whole point. :-) I brought my camera and I took some photos thinking I might work further on my sketches later from reference shots, but turns out I did not in fact get exactly the same angles as I was painting, and angles are key in horse painting. So, we'll see. These will most likely just remain unfinished studies.
