The above is the second and final attempt at an illustration for my daughter’s wedding invitation. I tried, once again, to choose my colors to send a message within the painting and tried to make one more masculine and the other feminine, but think they could be either in this depending on the energy of the individuals. I chose to represent gray horses as they are born a color and slowly turn white over the years. Much different than a truly white horse that is born white. I hoped to represent the idea that we all have gray areas in our lives that become more clear and less gray as we steadily grow. I wish for them this growth in their relationship and shared journey together. I chose the colors of blue and yellow running together in the background. The yellow representing knowledge of self and the blue to represent truth. Through their self truths running together, they begin to blend and come forward as green(stands for the heart chakra) and filled with unconditional love. For these ideas I went loosely with the different chakra colors for what they represent. There are many interpretations of what color stands for so I understand the colors that I chose could mean something different to another.
For those that like to see the steps in creating this image, I have included the steps below.
The above is the drawing with the first washes of color to the horses. I made a gray from cerulean blue and halloween orange for the darker shadow shapes. I included light washes of permanent rose for areas of warmth where I saw it on the forms. I also used frisket to save white hairs as well as light gray hairs from this wash tone in the horses’ manes.
In the second step, I made a bluer gray from manganese blue and halloween orange and defined the faces of the horses and some of the strands of hair in the mane. I mixed ultramarine blue and halloween orange to make an even darker gray for the points of their ears, mane hairs and to define the muzzles and nostrils. The eyes were created using combinations of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. The pinkish areas were created using light aureolin and light permanent rose. This gave me enough representation of the forms to go ahead and work my background.
I made soupy wet washes (large) of aureolin and cerulean blue and fed them into the background very quickly and very wet so that they began to run together. I then picked up the board and tipped it this way and that so the colors began to run together and hint at a bit of green. I allowed this to dry overnight before going on.
Next, I removed the frisket on the mane and forelock areas and began working in strands of gray in all shades. I also detailed the eyes and furthur grayed the pigment around them. This was the stage where I tried to balance everything and punch my darks.