First off... can I tell you HOW excited I was to finally get a horse commission!? I was stoked, then when I saw the horse and found out it was a thouroghbred... well... that was the icing on the cake. Rydilluc was a beautiful subject and I thought he was the perfect subject for the old Flemish technique. I decided to dig my heels in and give it a go. The last time I used this technique was in college for my self portrait. Until now, that portrait was the painting I was most proud of. The dramatic lighting and coloring of the photo I was working from made me think this was a great candidate for the flemish technique. Now if you've been following my blog, you would realize I THOUGHT I was doing this technique all along! After all... it has been quite a few years since the Plattsburgh days. However I was missing one IMPORTANT step. The dead layer. So... now I will go into what I did with Rydilluc, it was a process but I think it paid off in the end.
So first off was a familiar step. One I have been doing all along. The Imprimatura & the Umber layer, although a few of my paintings were more like burnt sienna layers.... The imprimatura was a picture of Raw Umber, Mars Black and Titanium white. I mixed it up to a very thin glazing consistency and then painted the entire canvas with it. When that was dry, the rest of the painting was done with Burnt Umber, using the most opaque coats for the darkest darks and letting the imprimatura stand alone for the brightest brights with various gazing and blending for the medium grounds. Once this was done I thought we were off to a pretty good start. Next up... the dead layer.
So for the Dead Layer I used a Chromatic Black that was 60% Umber, 40% Ultramarine Blue & then added the tiniest bit of Yellow Ochre. From that I made a gradient of about 6 grays by adding titanium white and left straight up titanium white for the brightest brights. This part was fun, I remember from college how at each stage of the painting I was pleased and nervous about wrecking it in the next stage... same was true here, but by the time I had Rydilluc's face done I was excited to see the entire dead layer take over. This layer was the most time consuming of all. I'll post a few of process pics of this layer coming together.
So, it took a while for the dead layer to dry completely, especially the areas with a lot of titanium white. You can see how in some places the umber layer was still showing through, and I really liked that about this... each layer feeds upon the next in the most subtle ways. So finally came the color layer... and my God was I nervous... how was I going to pull this off. I HAD to really analyze my picture of Rydilluc to find any notes of subtle color on this Black Beauty. The last thing I wanted was to end up with a big black blob staring back at you. As my Father-In-Law put it...."I don't know how you're going to do this.. it's a black horse, with a black eye, in a black barn!" haha he was right... but I could see that there were some beautiful colors in there and I knew if I could pull it off it would be beautiful.
What I thought was cool here was how little color I had to put on to really start bringing some life to the dead layer. I found a miracle color combo of Permanent Alizarine Crimson mixed with some burnt umber to block in those reddish tones I found at the very edges of some of Rydilluc's darkest black areas. Then for the rest of the highlights I used a very thin glaze of a chromatic black that was heavy handed with ultramarine blue . So it was more of a midnight blue than a black. Once I got that mid night blue layer on the face, it really started to come together. That and my miracle red that I just loved so much made for a really pretty black.
Some work on the stable, a signature & an AMAZING frame and Rydilluc was ready for his big reveal. As always I learned a lot from this painting. One thing I learned more than anything is what an awesome family and support structure I have around me. My Husband has been Mr. Mom all summer as I have been working so hard on these paintings. I have missed out on some great fun summer things with the kids, but I am hoping that this is laying some ground work for a potential career for me when the kiddos are both off to school in 2 years (insert tears...my babies!) I might have missed out a bit this summer, but if this allows me to stay at home and have a schedule catered to our family's needs... well that would just be the bees knees.... I have to also thanks my awesome sister-in-law. If it weren't for her relentless promotion of my art and flat out asking a friend to commission me, I would have never had this opportunity... and what an opportunity it has turned out to be! Jennifer Contessa had the trust in me that I could paint her beloved boy Rydilluc with no prior horses under my belt. THAT takes some guts! haha She was also kind enough to let our girls come behind the scenes at Saratoga Racecourse and meet and pet real thoroughbreds! The kids all got to ride on a painted pony and just had a ball! Meanwhile I was totally impressed to meet horse trainer Gary Contessa, a local celebrity for sure! What an impressive career! Then to top it ALL off... Jennifer had Gary's director of communications, Marion- who was out of this world helpful and SO complimentary to my work write up a beautiful article on my painting and posted it on Gary's website! Please check it out!http://www.garycontessa.com/rydilluc-painting-reunites-him-with-jennifer-contessa-his-anam-cara/
Thank you again to everyone, from the compliments & shares on Facebook, to the pats on the back at camp. I am truly more impressed by all of you & your hearts, than you are of me. xoxoxo And thats about all folks. "Rydilluc" has been an experience I will never forget!
Thank you again to everyone, from the compliments & shares on Facebook, to the pats on the back at camp. I am truly more impressed by all of you & your hearts, than you are of me. xoxoxo And thats about all folks. "Rydilluc" has been an experience I will never forget!