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Create... A place for writers, artists and the rest of us! This Month...
Artist Tracy Wall on Stepping Through the Artistic Process: Colorado artist Tracy Wall, "...As a visual artist, I like to call attention to the remarkable things I see. No need to search the world for the amazing; it's right here around us. With my paintings, I shed new light on everyday life inviting you to see familiar scenes as if for the very first time. My goal is to help you pay more attention to the real life around you, to look longer and closer at everyday patterns of line, shape, form and color. I paint primarily with oils, though I also create drawings and studies in pastel and charcoal. I love the natural geometrics of form and their composition, but I also incorporate loose painterly brushstrokes where lines and edges are blurred..." Photograph: I took this photograph at a trail ride place outside of Estes Park, Colorado. I liked the way the two main horses were juxtapositioned on the slope along the fence. There’s lots of visual information in the foreground and background that I’ll need to edit. Takes focus away from subjects.		Tracy's Web Site E-questrians is proud to feature Tracy's work in the header of this page
Step 1: I start by drawing a small loose value sketch in a sketch book (this is 2 ½” x 5”) to check if the basic arrangement of value shapes (value = dark, medium, light) is interesting and aesthetically pleasing to my eye.
Step 2: Sketched the main elements roughly in vine charcoal on the 15” x 30”canvas. The vine charcoal is easy to erase, and drawing basic shapes helps me design the layout easier. On smaller pieces, I usually skip this stage and go straight to painting, but larger works like this I want to be sure composition of shapes are proportional. I’ve exaggerated the diagonal slope, omitted the other horses and many of the extras in the background. I’m looking to simplify the image as a whole.
Step 3: Once I have the composition and before I start to paint, I choose the palette of colors I’ll be using. Because I’m emphasizing the value shapes here, I’ll choose to limit my colors to use mostly yellows and violets (specifically, cadmium yellow medium, yellow ochre, dioxazine purple and titanium white). Here, I’ve laid in the darkest darks found on the left horse and the fence.
Step 4: Next, I lay in the medium value shapes. There is lots of medium values in this piece, so I’ve tried to break it down into ‘dark mediums’ and ‘light mediums’. Dark mediums shown here.
Step 5: Finished laying in light mediums and lights. Here I can get an overall look at the arrangement of the shapes to see if it works from a distance. I feel a painting has to have an interesting enough composition viewed from a distance even before you step closer to recognize the subject matter.
Step 6: Started to add in selected subtle details. I look at the edges on my shapes and see which need to remained defined, and which are best softened. You’ll see there is more definition in the form of the horses’ heads, legs and the fence posts, and less definition and a softening of the edges of the shapes on the horses’ bodies.
Step 7: Added more details to a point at which I am happy with the completed painting. The head shapes are more refined and even more definition to the fence rails, while refining the dapples on the near horse. I bring continuity to the whole painting by including the impression of the grasses throughout. Last, I added dark edges to the border to finish it off.
		E-questrians thanks Colorado artist Tracy Wall for sharing her knowledge and technique. Visit Tracy's web site at www.tracywall.com. All content © 2009, Tracy Wall

Meet Cholla, an Amazing Equine Artist... Truly Cholla is an international artist whose art is collected worldwide and has sold in 28 states. And what else? Cholla is a copper buckskin Quarter horse / Mustang cross standing 15.2 hands and weighing 1,300 Lbs! Read Cholla's amazing story Cholla's Video Cholla's Equine Art Gallery * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Meet Trevor, The Incredible Bowing Horse! Amazing . . . Click here! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Coming Soon ~ Capturing Expression... Equine artist shares her techniques for capturing the expressions in her dog and horse portrayals.