I took my time painting this pair of miniatures from Pulp Figures. I started with the mounted Mountie, painstakingly entering a zen-like trance in order to keep my hands from shaking as I painted the pinstripes, straps, and stirrups.
Once I completed Sgt. Prestown, I painted his horse in shades of golden brown. I kind of regret adding an ink wash; even after highlighting over the wash to take away some of the muddiness, I still think the horse looked better pre-wash, as seen below:
What do you think?
Horses are murderous to paint, that's what I think. Sylvia can tell you about painting Pie-O-My.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you about George Stubbs, who painted quite a number of horses around two hundred years ago. Stubbs was self-taught, obsessed with both the painting medium and the anatomy of nature, particularly horses. I just read that he spent eighteen months dissecting horses, so he learned his subject matter first-hand. While he employed the techniques of the master painters of his time, he broke from convention with heavily romanticized compositions or the complete absence of composition. He's Ridley Scott's favourite painter.
You are right: simpler is better, and your original horse looks better to me as well. I can see where you were going with the dry brush, but you didn't follow the anatomy. For a model so small, that would be tough. You could just repaint the horse. If you really wanted to push it, you could look at Stubbs and see what he did in his work, and follow that.
I do think your brushwork on Sgt. Prestown is some of your best so far! Definitely, you train your hand to be steady no matter what. It's hard enough for a canvas, for a 3D model it's the hardest.