Painting the head and mane of a horse... continuing painting the head and mane of a horse
In painting the head and mane of a horse I first painted in a light cadmium red and burnt sienna and painted over the burnt umber colours inside the ears with a dark cerulean blue because these parts are in shadow so need to be a bit cooler so good observation is needed here.
More of the mane is painted in with burnt umber and its important to get the hair right here so that it really looks as though it is falling over the horses forehead and try and not have hair strands going parallel to each other no matter which way they go, this can look monotonous and it will look a stiff drawing here.
Carrying on with the nose area with burnt umber around its outline which will be painted over with a cooler blue colour to make this outline recede.
Here I have started to model the nose area using a lighter burnt umber and a cerulean blue over the dark umber in the eyes and I also put in a bit of light reflection in the left eye.
I started painting in with a darker burnt umber for the front plain of the horses nose because this area is nearest us, always remember that whatever is closest to us that the darks and lights are darker and lighter, this brings this area out to us more and achieves depth. I also started on the right nostril.
Using darker tones of burnt umber for the nostril I painted over this with a dark cerulean blue to make it really dark and cooler in this area, I have also painted in the mouth area with burnt umber and a light pink.
The horse in the photograph is munching on hay so this creates a bit of movement to the horse so I'm going to paint this in with a few quick deft strokes of yellow ochre.
No real highlights are showing in the eyes but I have added some to set them off a little, a bit more form has been added to the nose using the same burnt umber we have used throughout the portrait.