Skip navigation

Itching to Paint Another Horse

coltscratching

I found the reference for this little guy in the Wet Canvas photo reference library. The original photograph was taken by Cathy Sheeter. Thank you!

24 Comments

  1. What an adorable creature with its long awkward legs! I love the shading style with shapes of color, particularly in the white legs. So cool! The legs are especially great. 😀

    • Thank you, Cindy. The legs were the fun part, all wobbly and crossed. I love watching little ones get their legs about them that first two weeks of life. They are so gangly at that time, before their bodies begin to fill out.

  2. Very cute! The action in this piece becomes the focus though we cant stop admiring the shading job done on his body, lovely job Leslie!

  3. I don’t care the species or the breed; all babies are adorable! I’ll bet he had a hard time staying on his feet with this contortion! LOL

    • Thank you, Sherry. You are right. There is an allure about babies.

  4. You’ve captured coltish youth in motion, Leslie… that look of being ‘not in control’ yet … but I’ll get there. type of thing… xPenx

    • Ha! You are so right, Pen. I think that is truly what caught my eye about this reference; …and the fact it was a horse, my favorite subject to draw and paint. Thank you!

  5. You definitely captured this little one’s energy

  6. Awwwwww… Beautiful little colt, Leslie!

  7. What a lovely young one, Leslie. So full of energy and so much spring in this painting.

  8. So cute, Leslie. They can be quite the contortionist at that age. He will end up being quite a pretty bay when he grows up. I love your shading and his coat color.

    • That’s right! You are a horse lady, Ruth. Yep, he’s a bay, legs to change color as he matures. I liked the wrinkles in his skin in the photo reference. They are all skin and bones when they are first born. Doesn’t take more than a couple weeks for them to fill out, though, does it. Thank you, Ruth.

  9. You’ve capture his movement so well!! 🙂 and what gorgeous colors, the light green and rich brown are so beautiful together!

    • Thank you for noticing my choice of colors for the background, Isabelle. I have struggled with greens and getting the color of them somewhat to normal representations. In the photo reference, he was standing on the dirt soil of a barnyard and I wanted to give him a little something different.

  10. I am always so impressed with the way you bring animals to life (and I still love your palette!)

    • When I took that Don Andrews class, almost two years ago, now, I switched to American Journey watercolors. It took me some time to get used to them as they are a little more opaque but I don’t find that they lack in brightness of color and they really have a nice way of settling on the paper, no matter what kind of paper I use. You pay me a wonderful comment to say that you love my palette. Thank you, so much.

  11. I love this one Leslie, the rendition of the horse, the gesture and the moment are inspired! I feel like I was there.

  12. I like your baby horse picture!


Leave a reply to lesliepaints Cancel reply