Sketchbook - Cassie, Pronghorn, Cricket, Saddle Bronc

This is our little pretzle-girl Cassie. 

This is Cricket a yearling we had for a very short time before she was tragically injured and had to be euthanized.  She was a sweet filly and a real beauty. 

From a photo I took at a Fort Worth rodeo

a study of a pronghorn buck done for practice for the painting, "Fleet Pronghorns"

Sketchbook - More Centaur Sketches

Here are two new ones in the centaur sketchbook. 

Sketchbook - Komodo Dragon

I love reptiles and have kept various sorts as pets over the years, but, komodo dragons...the big ones...give me the heebie-jeebies!  They are so prehistoric and so coldly predacious...this was just a little 8 or 9 footer at the Fort Worth Zoo sitting under a log beside his water trough, watching me watch him! 

Sketchbook - Zebra

This zebra was another resident of the Grand Prairie Wildlife Park that I photographed in the late 80s.  I don't know which zebra species this is. 

Sketchbook - Longhorn

This big longhorn steer was a resident of the long-gone, Grand Prairie Wildlife Park.  I photographed him from my car while driving through the park back in the late 1980s. 

Centaur Sketchbook - More sketches

Centaur Sketchbook - some new some old

I have been adding to this book lately, so, I thought I would show some of the sketches I've done in it. I started this sketchbook back in 2006, but, have only worked in it sporatically. Here are a selection from it.

Dog Breed Project - Chihuahua Pup

I just couldn't resist this charming pup! This is in my sketchbook again!

Horse Breed Project - Jenny Wren, an Appaloosa Shetland Pony

Close-up detail

This is a graphite on 8x10 Multimedia Art Board and was drawn for the WetCanvas Horse Breed A Week Project. The project is now going every two weeks instead of weekly.

Jenny Wren was one of the 4 horses my family kept when I was a kid. She was such a character - part demon, part angel! My sisters and I learned so much about horses from this little brown appy-colored shetland pony! This drawing is not being offered for sale as it is staying in the family.

Sketchbook - Paint

This one is not for any of the breed projects I'm participating in, it's just another horse...of course!

100 Birds Challenge - New Project

OK, I am just not involved in enough projects, so, I added another! Ha! This is a challenge to draw, sketch, or, paint one hundred birds to improve my knowlege of birds and improve my arting skills! Here's a link to the original challenge thread on WetCanvas;

http://wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=563498

I know I will not be as prolific with the birdies so have given myself a long cushy deadline of one year. I do hope to do more than just sketches from photos which is how I am starting out. I will incorporate birds into my regular output of equine art and also plan to paint some bird specific paintings along the way. My main hold-ups for producing finished art for this (and the other projects) is my lack of original reference material. If I work from photographic reference material, I much prefer to use my own, although for these projects, I have been using the images provided from the WetCanvas reference image library. I just don't get out and about much these days to get my own reference materials, so, I am relying, for now, on photos I took years ago at the zoo and parks. They will run out fast, though, so, I am going to have to actually step outside the house sometime to work from life or take new photos! These are just some quickies sketches to start with.

Black Swan

Snow Owl

Sketchbook - Dog project - English Bulldog, Saarloos Wolfhound

I'm doing a little catch-up here as I've been slacking off a bit this past two weeks and had to scramble to get anything done for these projects. These are quickie sketches.

First is the Saarloos Wolfhound

and, English Bulldog

Sketchbook - Mangalarga Marchador

Here is the latest in the Horse Breed a Week project, the Mangalarga Marchador. I'm running behind a bit on these projects so I just did this one sketch for this weeks breed.

Sketchbook - Spectators

One more from the team roping crowd, a non-competitor just lounging in the sidelines.

Sketchbook - Shakin' Out A Loop

After finishing his run in a team roping practice, this rider shakes the twists out of his lariat, and, walks his big quarterhorse to cool out in preparation for his next turn up to rope. I will need to re-photograph this as this picture is reflecting light off the graphite on the right side which is why it looks lighter than the left.

Sketchbook - Canadian Horse

These horses are really beautiful! They look like a chunky morgan or a morgan/friesian cross. I really love thier big round curves and solid legs. They often have an abundance of hair, too, with feathering on the legs and plush, elegant manes and tails which help to combat those frigid northern winters. This pretty boy is in summer garb...

about 4x6 Eboney graphite pencil

close-up of the head...

Sketchbook - Marwari Horse

Here is one more for the Breed A Week project on the Marwari horses. I really enjoy exploring and learning about these differant breeds of horses! On each of these breeds, I have studied the breed characteristics and then viewed as many photographs of the horses as possible to learn the typical look and build of the breed. With this sketch, I just worked out my drawing based on what I had learned, not using any photo references, just working from memory.

and here is a detail from the full sketch...

Sketchbook - Roper - In the Box

This big palomino quarterhorse was all tensed up ready to explode into action, but, still as a statue, waiting for the calf to break from the chute and his rider to let him run! This is from a photograph I shot a few years ago at a local team roping practice.

No Chicken Scratch! The Sketchbook

I've always kept a number sketchbooks that I use to jot down ideas for new paintings or, just to dabble around in until I come up with something concrete that I want to do a finished painting of. I use these sketchbooks to do the planning and layout work, explore new compositions, try to work out anatomical problems and every kind of scribble and notation from art supply lists to mathmatical jottings. Mostly, they are just so much chicken-scratch that even I have trouble trying to decipher what I'm looking at! Ha! You know it's bad if even I can't tell what I just drew! Basically, my sketchbooks are not anything I would ever want anyone else to see, but, here are a few of the better pages from my 'work' sketchbook!

Planning ideas for mustang series

First idea sketches for Paint Horse Magazine cover competition


Guidehorse paintings study




Planning sketches for "Malpais Gold" painting

I've always admired other artists that keep wonderful sketchbooks with every page filled with exquisite drawings and beautifully rendered studies. Personnally, I never put that much effort into a sketchbook before, because I always considered them to be working tools. I've always felt that the real efforts should be saved for the final painting or drawing, and so, I just did quick thumbnails sketches for layouts or values and very rarely attempted even a halfway finished sketch. When the Horse Breed a Week Project was started on WetCanvas in January, I decided to start a new sketchbook with the goal of No-Chicken-Scratch! Every page would stand alone as a finished sketch or study and it would be filled with everything from the various projects, to life drawings, to purely imaginary fantasy art...all complete - no incomprehensibility. Well, we'll see how that goes! These are two pages from the new sketchbook drawn from life of my cats, Claw-dette (top) and Foxy FaeFey.

I had a Christmas gift certificate from my sister and brother-in-law to Barns & Nobles, so, I used that to get this wonderful hand-made, Italian leather bound sketchbook/journal with over 300 pages of perfect drawing paper.

I have just loved drawing in this book...once I got over the trepidation of 'messing up' this wonderful book! So far, I have only used black Eboney graphite pencils, but, this paper should also take pen & ink, and color pencils very well, and, if I get off my Eboney kick, I may try some other media in this. These two are my newest from the Horse Breed project, Appaloosa and Australian Stock Horse.

"Appy Roping Horse"

"Australian Stock Horse"

Projects

One of the art projects I am currently involved with is the Horse Breed a Week Challenge on WetCanvas.com which started in January and will run all year. Most of my entries are just small quick sketches in graphite and a few full color paintings as time allows. I'm not new to horse art, but, this project has already been a wonderful education for me as it has covered breeds I rarely or never paint and has been really good for shaking me out of my comfort zone!

"Irish Draught" graphite sketch 4x6"

I bought a wonderful leather-bound sketchbook with more than 300 pages to it at the start of this project. It is my goal to fill this with drawings from the Horse Breed Challenge and any other subjects that strike my fancy! Another project I am participating in on WetCanvas is the Dog Breed project that runs every two weeks. I'll be mixing the dogs in with the horses in this new sketchbook, too. I have been drawing and painting horses all my life, but, dogs are a new subject for me, so, this project will be a really great way to get to know some of the dog breeds and get my feet wet with canine art.

"Pug" 4"x6" oil painting