Horse Heads

Every time I look at horses, in addition to their grace and sense of controlled power, I am struck by the beauty of their faces. There is something about the sculpted solidity of the bones in the horses' head that begs to be drawn or painted.

Horse Head and Horses were both drawn rapidly with Conte crayon charcoal sticks with digital photographs used as a reference. As I get better, I am planning to do a series of large line drawings of horse heads, so this is good practice for now.

Horse Head, Conte crayon on paper, 11"x14", Not for sale

Horses, Conte crayon on paper, 11"x14", Not for sale

Odd Composition?

For some reason asymmetric composition draws viewer interest a lot longer than complete evenness. Design elements with odd-number components suggest more movement and engage the viewer. Even or symmetric numbered elements are perceived as static and quickly quench interest.

There is no handy explanation for this phenomenon. Perhaps it has something to do with how the brain processes visual stimuli and its relevance for human survival. Movement in the visual field may indicate a potential prey or predator and thus holds interest a lot longer than static symmetry that quickly fades into the background and is of no interest.

Anyhow, Three Peppers uses the odd-number composition. In addition, the peppers are all different sizes too. In my opinion, this strengthens the composition even further.

Three Peppers, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale

Inexpensive Experimentation

Though I had read about the merits of adopting regular and frequent sketching as an essential component of perfecting technique, it is only after I started drawing that the full potential of this inexpensive activity began to dawn on me. Not only do sketches compel close observation but they also allow compositional designs to be tried out before committing paint to ground. In the absence of a formal education in fine art, it has taken me years to arrive at this obvious conclusion!

Waiting for Spring is a charcoal sketch that I did from a digital photograph. I was satisfied with the form and placement of the bird. Upon reflection I realized that the blank space in front of the bird allows the eye to easily travel out of the scene. It would have been easy to use another branch coming off of the bottom one to re-direct the eye back to the center of interest.

Waiting for Spring, Charcoal on paper, 4"x6", Not for sale