The Story Of
Obi
This gorgeous horse was called Obi. His owner Sally wanted a memorial portrait of him and provided me with several photographs. She wanted drawing with perspective from his nose! And it was such a great composition that I immediately agreed. Sally also wanted a lilac background, I usually leave the backgrounds white, so it was a challenge to mix the right lilac so that it didn't overwhelm the image, but we got there and he is beautiful.
I started with a background using a water soluble, Faber Castel, Albrecht Durer pencil in purple violet.
However, I wasn't happy with the watermarks it left or the depth of colour which overwhelmed the pencil drawing.
I started to add white pan pastel over the pencil background to tone it down, this took several applications to achieve the colour and smooth texture that I wanted. Meanwhile I started to work on the hair and velvety nose.
Quick video of drawing in process
