Caution and Disregard

I get nervous to add colour to any line drawing like this. It's nerve-wracking! I spend maybe an hour getting all the lines in order and inking them on the sheet of paper, and then I pick up my paintbrush and kind of just have at it and hope for the best.

Sometimes the drawing gets ruined, either by a slip of a hand or improper planning on my part. You can only be so "careful" in art, and my style tends to be a delicate balance of caution and disregard.

So there you have it.

2010 Horse Ride design

Here is the finalized design for the 2010 RISPCA Horse Ride.

More info about the event is available here.

If anyone would like to pre-order a t-shirt, email Denise at rivestadog@aol.com and she will set one aside for you :)

Custom Save the Dates

My wedding in September will be here before we know it, and yesterday I completed the design for our save the dates. It will be printed on magnets so that people can plaster us all over their fridge for the next six months :)

Art inspired by my horse, Lucy

Forward

The weather here has been dull and dreary, and the horses are stuck inside thanks to the 2-4" of predicted rain for this weekend. I let Lucy out into the indoor to play and she had tons of extra energy. She spent almost half an hour running and bucking and playing, and when I got home from the barn, I was thinking about the way she moved today. I had this mental image of her tearing around, her haunches spring-loaded for action and her ears pricked foward, looking for the best route.

I also had been thinking a lot about forward energy, and how the energy for a horse comes from behind and goes in a circular motion, making its way through the horses back, shoulder, up the neck, through the jaw and then back towards the haunches again. I drew this tonight while the image was fresh in my mind and now I have to figure out how I'm going to finish it.

In the mean time, enjoy the work-in-progress, a memento of twenty-five minutes of orchestrated chaos.

Very excited!

For Christmas, I got a gorgeous drawing/drafting table from my fiance's parents. I tried it out tonight for the first time and it makes drawing so much easier than having to hunch over a drawing pad on the couch.

The drawing I did tonight is of my new horse, Lucy:


I used a photo I took of her as my reference. I love using my own photographs as references because then the piece is truly original.

Here is a shot of my drawing table all set up in my apartment:

I like having the fish to look at while I draw :)

If you're interested in reading more about Lucy, she has her own blog here.

First holiday commission of 2009

This is Amber, and she belongs to a friend of mine whom I met on the URI Equestrian Team while in college. Jill treated herself to this custom drawing. She's a woman after my own heart-if we want something, we go out there and get it! I hope she enjoys this drawing for many years to come.

I had the best time drawing this. It has been so long since I got out my nice Bristol paper and fancy pencils, because I have been concentrating so much on the photography side of this business. Normally I'll have to start a drawing, put it down and come back to it in an hour or so, place all my dark values, leave it overnight, come back to it in the morning, place medium values, etc, but I was so content shading away that I produced the entire drawing all in one four hour sitting.

Nate, Dazzle, Doc and Finni

Today I made my way up to Foster (which I have decided is the horsey mecca of Rhode Island) to photograph Nate and his horses Doc, Dazzle, and Finni.

We started with Finni, who is an Andalusian mare. She was really making us work for her attention but with a face like hers, it was not hard to get some beautiful shots.

Then we got Doc and Dazzle, both QH geldings, and they stole the show. They were striking poses and giving me the most adorable pricked ears and that combined with their liquid deep brown eyes made me instantly fall in love with these horses. They both know they are incredible!