Jazz

Here is the final version of Jazz.

Now that I have finished Jazz, it's tack time.

I'm slowly making progress but have been a bit hampered by being out all morning picking up, dropping off, picking up and then finally dropping off paintings for exhibitions that have just finished and are about to start. It's all go!

Work has started on the facial features. I'm working from quite a small photo compared to usual so it's quite strange not putting in all the detail I usually do but Jazz's colouring helps a lot as it makes for a very smooth coat. My water spray is working overtime to make sure I can keep the paint moist enough to blend but at least I don't have too many colours to worry about and is proving to be easier than I had first thought. This is, of course, also helped by being such a stunning horse!

Jazz is starting to take shape with most of the shoulder and neck complete. I do the tack quite near the end so that it has the feel of being on top of the skin.

Jazz

This beautiful horse is Jazz and I am painting on 18x14" canvas. Because of the colour of Jazz's coat I will have to take a different approach to this painting compared to coats with a lot of different colours in and I also have to take into account that acrylic is tricky to blend with because of it's fast drying quality. Normally I start by blocking in one main colour and build up from there but because of the transparancy of this colour and lack of many tones, I have included the shadows when blocking in so that when I paint on top, the tonal values are already underneath.

Finished

Here is the finished painting of Ru. As you can see, taking the photo outside in daylight shows the colours properly and you can finally see the coat's true chestnut tones.

Nearly finished. All that is left to do are the ears and around the top of the neck and head. If you click on the picture you can see all the layers I painted in today a bit clearer and how the coat has come together.

I am slowly building up the colours throughout Ru's coat. Just under her eye is a hint of purple so this is my base layer and I am then adding layers on top to bring out her chestnut. Unfortunately because of the lighting I take the photos under, the chestnut is not really showing but it is there! I build up the coat with lots of little strokes to emphasis the fur and the direction it lies and this also allows me to incorporate all the colours.