Finished drawings.......at last!

Home Straight
26.5cm x 34cm
Pencil on Mellotex paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011

Didn’t quite meet my goal of having all three drawings finished by the end of February, only managing to do two in the end. Not that it was a problem in any way as the last drawing is now complete and I’m happy with how they have turned out which is what matters at the end of the day. But for what it’s worth I blame the Lusitano and my underestimating the time it would take to do as there was a lot more work involved than I thought there would be:))

Odds On
30.5cm x 38cm
Pencil on Mellotex paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
My thanks to Sarah Clegg for the use of her photographs

‘Home Straight’, ‘Odds On’ and ‘On Show’ (the Lusitano) are all now available for sale and details can be found on my website.

Not sure what I’m going to be drawing next – have enjoyed my horses and I’m still thinking equine. But I also feel like experimenting and playing around with mixed media for a bit so anything could happen really.

More horses

Work in Progress
Graphite pencil on Mellotex paper
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011

My drawing of two horses ended up beating me in the end and it’s been put to one side for finishing another day – it was the jockeys that finally did it and I blame them entirely! Or more specifically their silks, I’m not a huge fan of drawing clothing and find I have the attention span of a gnat when faced with it. So rather than spend wasted time looking for things to do rather than jockeys I started a new drawing as shown in the image above. A similar theme but with only one horse this time. I’m really enjoying drawing full bodies as opposed to a head study.

I don’t know if it’s something in the air or what but this drawing has been ‘abandoned’ too for the time being while I’ve made a start on yet another drawing. Three drawings on the go at once is almost unheard of from me (rebel that I am:)) I’m more your one drawing at a time kind of girl, but it does keep things interesting - less likely to loose motivation for a piece this way. I do have a deadline and I want to get all three finished by the end of February which at this point in time doesn’t look as if it should be a problem.

Horses

Work in Progress
Copyright Laura Hardie 2011

With so much going on in my life just now, I don’t like to plan too far ahead as more often than not something gets in the way of any I make therefore best to say that, all going well, it is my intention to spend the next few months working on various drawings of the horse. Hopefully I will have a drawing or two I am happy with for the SEA Exhibition in August. This is an exhibition I’ve thought about entering work to for the past couple of years but haven’t for one reason or other. Want to make more of an effort this year with exhibitions and shows – no excuses this time!

On my drawing board just now are two horses in a Point-to-Point race and up to this stage I have thoroughly enjoyed working on it. It has been one of those drawings where I have struggled to put the pencil down when other things have needed doing, wanting to finish another part first, then another, and another. But as is nearly always the case when I’ve been working on a drawing for a long time I reach a ‘boredom stage’ nearing the end and can struggle to find the motivation to work on it. I find a short break away from it or working on something else helps to get the motivation back. I’m on the home stretch with this drawing now although lots of fiddly, time-consuming bits still left to do.

Copyright Laura Hardie 2011
My thanks to Sarah Clegg for allowing me to use her photograph

Day at the Races

With summer now here (although at times I find it hard to believe) I find myself out and about more often with my camera looking for some good reference material to work from. Right now I’m drawn to horses - just love them - so took myself off to the races yesterday at Musselburgh and spent a couple of hours happily snapping away at the horses in the parade ring before they were taken off to the course.

I’d have loved to have come away with some racing shots but couldn’t get a good enough position near to the track to take them from, plus I really don’t think my lens was up to the job – not if going by some I saw, they were huge and I mean HUGE.

I can't complain though as I came away with near enough 300 photos – whoever came up with the idea for the digital camera deserves a medal. There should be more than one or two in there that I can use, despite some annoying problems I seem to be experiencing with my camera.

A horse in progress

I've been working on this drawing of a horse on and off for the last couple of weeks - she's big and will be 14x10 inches when finished. Why I chose to do it quite so big I'm not sure as it's taking me aaaaages to do. This is approximately 15 hours so far.

Not that I'm complaining as I'm really enjoying it. I love horses, they're beautiful animals ......... to look at and draw. I don't mind admitting to being slightly - ok, very - wary of them and I blame it all on a traumatic childhood experience with a rogue horse.

I would tell you about it but it would take too long and I'm rubbish at telling stories, but what I will say is that it involved a HUGE horse - no, really it was; an ill fitting hard hat (i.e. far too big); lots of tree branches and of course, me. It was enough to put me off horses for good and the reason why I couldn't ride off into the sunset with my knight in shining armour - that bit really gets me!

Photoshop and me

I've made no secret of the fact that myself and Photoshop do not get along - I cannot, despite great help from fellow artists, get it sussed and as time goes on fear I never will. I follow instructions step by step and to the letter and while there are times I get it to do what I want there are more when I'm sitting there totally confused - like today when I tried to join two pictures together. I've done this successfully in the past but today Photoshop decided to remove the colour! Why - does it really hate me that much?

I have been working on the Springer Spaniel montage - mainly on the main pic - and wanted to scan where I'm at for my website and blog. Being a large portrait I had to do this in two halves - no problem - but as soon as I joined them the colour disappeared!?!?! I've spent more wasted hours than I care to think of trying to get Photoshop to like me and unfortunately today wasn't the day we gelled so can't show you where I'm at with the montage but can tell you I've made some progress with the reeds and that they're taking a frustratingly long time to do.

Something I could do - hooray - was scan and crop my first of many horse portraits I'm working on in between commissions. This is the first drawing/painting I've done for me in months, in fact coming up to a year and I'm really enjoying working on it.

She's in coloured pencil on drafting film. Working on this surface is great but as with everything, has it's negative points - the main one being layering. As an artist who builds layer upon layer of pencil to get the depth and colour I'm after I found I needed to change my technique quite considerably on this surface. I do like how the pencil feels and looks on it however so will definately be exploring it more.