I often suffer from Imposter Syndrome (IS) in regard to my art. It is a typical thing we artists experience.
When I was young I drew a lot and was quite good at it. Fast forward 40-50 years and those skills are being relearned. When I paint or do colored pencil work, using a reference photo, I trace it in Procreate on my iPad, print the outline, and transfer it to my paper.
I am constantly working to improve so my most recent work is this graphite horse. I chose to skip the tracing of the photo and used the Grid Method. Please sit back and enjoy the process.
The first step in any of my artwork is to find a good reference photo. Respecting other artists, strive to use copyright-free photos and this one came from Pixabay.
Knowing I wanted to do a monotone study, I changed it to black and white. I wanted the horse to look the other way, so I also flipped the photo.
The Grid method requires you to create a grid on your photo with evenly spaced lines. The lines are then lightly drawn on paper. The artist then recreates what is seen in each square. I use an app called Grid# to create the grid lines, then screenshot the photo, which is then printed. I then used both the printed photo and my iPad to recreate the photo in pencil.
Outline of painting on paper. To keep track of the squares most people number them. I find that I number one set and adding letters to the other; I numbered my rows and added letters to my columns.
Slowly adding the details, focusing on tones - Shadows, highlights, and mid-tones.
Little by little adding details and tones.
I move all over when painting/drawing. I'll work in an area until I need a break and move somewhere else. Generally, I darken an area I want to move back (shadows) and lighten areas I want to bring forward (highlight). I'm not happy with the background behind the neck of the horse but decided to leave it.
I thought I was done here and signed it, but it didn't look right. The eye was too small.
The eye has been enlarged, but something still isn't quite right. Normally, this is where I'd take a break, walk away, give it time, but I just kept on. I realized my tones were off. I needed to add some darker shadows.
I just kept pushing my shadows darker.
I added more depth behind the muzzle and not it pops off the page. I also added some of the bumps horses have on the muzzle. I erased a little spot, then drew a shadow on the same side o all of them.
I darkened the shadows on the top of the neck by the mane and under the neck.
I added darker spots on the mane and forelock to add shadows under these areas.
I could go more with this, but the focus was for me to take a reference photo and draw it using the Grid Method.
Supplies used:
•SURFACE/PAPER: Strathmore Drawing paper; medium surface 9x12
•PHOTO: Pixabay