i thought i had already posted this but turns out i hadnt so here is the horses update with the sky that was done last week.
i had a bit of trouble with the clouds / sky, this is by no means finished. going to revisit it once the horses are in so here is the update so far

kids mirrors

Well i have been away and had a 2.5year old with gastro so the drawing has been put on hold for a few days while i deal with that. But i have done a bit of work on my other artistic venture which is customised painted kids mirrors amoung other things. I have had 3 of them on my desk for a couple of months now, but we have a birthday party to go to on the weekend which i thought would make a nice gift so i better get cracking on it. So here is a pic of this one so far and some past ones. I havent decided whether to do the stick on letters for this one or not simply because i cant get to the shop to buy some ! :)

Horses Update

I have pushed on further with the grass. There is still a bit further to go but for now this is fine.

I used bits of felt to blend the grasses together as well as varing my strokes. I also have used cooler colours towards the back and warmer to the front its not that noticable but something i will endeavour to take more notice with next time around.

So, i have made a start on my horses :) I have started with my pastel underpainting and with my backgrounds first. At the moment there is only blue pastel on the sky but i have started with more detail on the grass i applied quite a few layers of cp.

Being so large i found that i was making my usual mistake of not looking at the values and working "too close" so i stood up and worked which i found really helped as i could see the drawing as a whole in stead of in sections. It also allowed me to add in some different types of strokes i held the pencil very loosely almost laying it down on the paper as i worked and moved the position of it constantly (much like you do with charcoal) which allowed me to loosen up some.

I then very lightly dabbed places with some turpenoid to smooth the colour and cover the bits of paper, this should now allow me to go over it with much more detail.

Horses

After my last piece i found it was had to get the detail i wanted so with this next one i wanted to larger so this one will be A3 size. About the largest cp one i have done.

So i will be attempting some horses. Horses arent really my thing but after a recent visit to a horsestud i was inspired and given that Scone is such a big horse town if i can make a few pics to sell at the in-laws B&B that would be fantastic.

So here is the reference pic i have chosen thanks to rewston at wetcanvas.com. I wasnt happy with the composition of it so i added a bit to the top bottom and side :)

This one will be done on white colorfix paper, i really enjoyed the texture of the paper on the last piece but given that this one is white paper i will need to be adding in some underpainting to make the process faster.
So i have experimented with different materials ie. watercolour pencils, pastel and have decided to go with the pastel. Its fast, doesnt use water, colours can be mixed fairly easily and the pencil goes on fine over the top.

I seem to struggle when i have to do things like grass and sky i think this is mainly connected with not seeing values correctly and getting my colours. So i have done a bit of research with various books (mainly my Ann Kullberg books) and done a few experimental bits of grass and sky.
What i have learnt from this is:
- get my darks in first!
- use the eyedropper / value viewer to get the correct values and colours of what i am drawing not forgetting that cp mixes with the colours underneath and what it is to have a warm / cool shadow etc
- experiment more with different strokes and pressures
- start with a lighter colour to "roadmap" what i am drawing
- not forgetting to "roadmap" with complementary colours for shadows etc and roadmapping as i have learnt in previous pieces.