Step three of “Horse Portrait 1″ 0
The deep darkness of the ears is mirrored in the eyes to catch interest and direct the focus onto the face. For these darks I am using Kimberly 9xxb pencils along with 2b Staedler Mars Lumographs. I am keeping conscious of the desired contrast here, and not over doing the darks giving a nice transition that simulates life. While I am trying to convince the viewer that there are fine hairs in the ear, I want them a little “blurry”, or otherwise indistinct. I want the illusion, not duplication.
For shading the jowl, I am transitioning from laying down the graphite in small circles to hatching with a variety of grades of graphite. Here, the saturation has not been achieved, but I am developing form. Starting with 2h lead I put down a wash of graphite using short, relatively light pressure strokes, and then I move onto h and b grades to develop shadow and form. It takes many layers to get the right depth of shade. The strokes are then blended lightly with a brush allowing much of the hatching to come through. Your eye will see the suggestion of hairs and will result in seeing more hairs than have been intentionally drawn.
The mane that falls over the jowl has a great contrast. For the very ends I am using a stylus to put in a few individual hairs. The indication of only a few of these hairs are enough to trick the eye again into seeing more detail than there actually is. Additionally, I am randomly putting is wild squiggly hairs throughout the mane to make it more natural.
The tricky part of this step is to give the suggestion of the horses coat while maintaining the fine wrinkles and shadow of skin. Since I am using hatching I have to be mindful not to get too sloppy as too ruin the fine detail, while being loose enough to make it organic in appearance. Too exact, and it will look manufactured.