The Horse Spirit (the painting process)

Above is the finished painting of The Horse Spirit...

Private Collection

Copyright - Kerri Hicks Fleming

My "work space"

My client requested a large, square, acrylic painting of a horses head with flowing mane in bright colors (unrealistic for a horse).  I worked from a  great photograph of a brown horse in a field with the light coming from the left....cropping the photo to the area I wanted.  I "over-exaggerated" the natural warm and cool colors and added more flowing mane.

I started with a primed, stretch-wrapped canvas 36"x36".
I  began with a simple pencil sketch of the shapes in the horse's head...

I then quickly filled in the background with color...not working with too much detail or even color choice at this time, but mainly focusing on the "depth" of the background.

Next was to block in a medium depth base of the cool and warm colors of the face and body.

Added in the dark colors...

I decided with the colors I chose for the horse, I would use blues, greens and yellows for the background.  I quickly combined these colors on the canvas, spraying with a light coat of water to help blend and keep the colors workable.



Now I added in the darkest of darks and lightest of lights...

 

put in top layers of mane, and flowing mane on the side...

I like to view the painting in a mirror, as well as "upside down"
 for any shape or color corrections..

This is also the time I paint and color match the sides of the wrapped canvas.

The final painting....dry and signed.

Copyright by Kerri Hicks Fleming