Veronka lends herself to a great many colors and patterns and I was asked to lay on a dark bay appaloosa based on a real sport horse mare.
She started out with a base color - dark bay using a mix of burnt umber and burnt sienna over a light golden color done all in acrylics just sort of smooshing colors together and accentuating some areas with pastels. I also had areas of black - namely the lower legs and topline that were added after I took this picture. This looks pretty ugly in her early stages with a mush of color, the start of the blanket and the beginnings of the roaning process. |
So, how do I spend the hours doing this? Easy enough - put on a good movie, put my feet up on a chair, sit back and tick away! Yeah, but here's a piece of advice. DO NOT under any circumstances put on something that will easily distract you or make you laugh. I've become a huge Marvel movies fan of late and my go-to films are just full of eye candy but allow me to pass the time ticking away pretty easily. But, as I said, distractions are BAD, as in my case with Tom Hiddleston as the bad but incredibly misunderstood and totally gorgeous Loki in the Thor movies and Avengers. Ok, Robert Downy Junior and Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans and the whole cast are equally distracting eye candy too, but Loki steals the show for me every time! I mean, seriously, I'd probably have been better off putting on the 13 hours of Star Wars films (although DON'T get me started on Harrison "Han Solo" Ford!!) and I really must steer clear of Hiddles in Only Lovers Left Alive (Tom as a vampire is literally to die for).
Hey, I might be an "older" gal but I am NOT dead yet! And lookie how much I got done despite all the distractions!!!
After several sessions working the right side, I finally rounded over her back and started the left side. I didn't follow the reference horse's pattern but let the spots develop as I painted just using the real horse's flavor if you will. At this point, her blanket is pretty much laid out and would continue down the legs and underside. This isn't something to do in one session. There are many many thin layers of paint applied here and at times I allowed the model to rest and dry up between sessions otherwise with my process in using acrylics the paint can gum up and rip or you just get sloppy with thicker hairs that don't look right.
So, there you have it! The creation of Ideal Design's coat pattern!
Below I give you a slideshow of this piece showing a variety of angles and details.