LEATHER

Recently our painting group tackled painting from life.  One of the painters brought us a collection of equestrian necessities - leather boots, a saddle, halters, real brass hunting horns....I was sooo excited.   All the painters did an amazing job in a short period of time- from set up to lighting the different collections, to designing and painting.   And - we had to turn the overhead lights off to have acceptable lighting, and they still pulled out great studies.    I didn't get to work from life, but I did get photos.
Here is how my study  is going:
First, the photo.

  Notice I used the beginning of a landscape that didn't go anywhere.  You can see the ghost image underneath.  Then the loose sketch placing the saddle and a boot..   In the second or third photo you can tell I made the saddle more upright. The boot was reduced to fit the frame and composition.

 





















I stopped at this point - the next phase will add the stirrup leathers and the halter draped on the saddle.   That is the important  part of the composition for me.  It makes a figure 8 that flows through the composition and links the stirrup leather and stirrup.  I'm hoping the eye flow will follow all those curves of the saddle.
I'll  show the finished painting in the next blog post.
We observed many things in that session of painting leather in the dark:
* where things are place or not placed on the 'rectangle" makes a rhythm.
* it's easier to move parts of composition (things, objects) in the light/dark phase than in the second or third stage when we start applying paint.   Yet  changes can still be made  almost any time.
* brushwork makes a big difference
* there are many ways of tackling a painting.