I was commissioned to create a painting from an image on a tee-shirt that a customer had obtained while attending a Renaissance Festival in Upstate,NY. The tee-shit was a pretty cool design but it also left more than a lot to the viewers imagination. The shirt was solid Black and the silk-screened image was basically just a White outline, with minimal shading.This one would require extensive research on my part in order to learn a bit about the anatomy of horses, as well as proper proportions for both horse and rider. The background allowed me to employ some artistic license, which is always nice. The customer did however have a few specifics they wanted; in place of what was on the actual shirt. Through consultation with a sculptor who has vast knowledge in horse anatomy I learned that the horse on the shirt was rather small in stature to be carrying a fully armored knight of that size. The horse would need to be larger and the rider would need to lose a bit of his armor in order to fall into the customer's specifications and for both to show some muscular definition. I had a lot of work ahead of me and began to draw the horse in charcoal until I was able to render one that was satisfactory to both myself and the customer.
I was asked to create the horse with a dark coat and planned on glazing over the initial charcoal drawing, once workable fixative had been sprayed over it, and allowed to fully dry. This would assure a smudge-less glazing process.The highlights and any additional tweaking would be rendered with solid paint. Once the horse was completed, a rider would now have to be placed upon it and the rider would need a saddle. I know, it sounds too obvious right? I felt as though I was dressing both the horse and the rider at each step of the process...and pretty much was but enjoyed the education.
The angle in which the horse was rendered would require a bit of foreshortening for the portrayal of the rider's legin order for it to be convincing.
I figured it'd be best to hold off on the glazing until the entire drawing had been completed.
Once the rider was drawn, some tack (bridle,reins etc.) was needed.
I was able now to move on to ideas for a background.
Hmmm...there are just sooo many possibilities to toss around when faced with a stark white canvas.
The customer and I traded thoughts and ideas as to what types of objects to place within the background and one item he wanted was at least one skull. Mountains came to mind, maybe a Castle in the distance, some water, possibly a large tree and many,many other items and scenarios were placed on the table.
After much deliberation and quite a bit of input from many people, we managed to narrow our ideas down to a select few, but first I wanted to paint the horse and rider and see where I stood.
Once the horse and rider were brought up to speed,I was able to continue along with sketching background ideas and whittling them into a sensible compositional layout. I would finish the painting by adding final tweaks and touch-ups here and there.
The customer is happy with the outcome of his new painting and once it was completely dry we took a trip to a local frame shop and were able to pick out an appropriate 3" width Black wooden frame. Thank you very much for following along with the creation of this painting and I hope you've enjoyed the ride.
The tee-shit was a pretty cool design but it also left more than a lot to the viewers imagination. The shirt was solid Black and the silk-screened image was basically just a White outline, with minimal shading.This one would require extensive research on my part in order to learn a bit about the anatomy of horses, as well as proper proportions for both horse and rider. The background allowed me to employ some artistic license, which is always nice. The customer did however have a few specifics they wanted; in place of what was on the actual shirt. Through consultation with a sculptor who has vast knowledge in horse anatomy I learned that the horse on the shirt was rather small in stature to be carrying a fully armored knight of that size. The horse would need to be larger and the rider would need to lose a bit of his armor in order to fall into the customer's specifications and for both to show some muscular definition. I had a lot of work ahead of me and began to draw the horse in charcoal until I was able to render one that was satisfactory to both myself and the customer.
