Donkey's Eating Candy

My mom was a good donkey grandma! She bought them the licking candy things. At first they didn't know how to use them! I had to go get some molasses and once the licks were covered with that a few times, the donkeys started right in working away. It's so cute to watch them as their eyes glaze over and they look like they're in slobber heaven!

On the art note, the panel I received is driving me quite crazy. I've spent a solid three days painting and repainting, trying to make it look right without losing what was on it at the beginning. But it's coming along and I should be able to show it to you before long.
Donna
Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

Snowy, 16X20 Acrylic painting of horse running through snow.

This painting was another of the two hour challenge paintings on the Equine Art Guild forum. The goal, is, to do a painting in 2 hours. I chose this photo from several. I liked the light, and the colors it cast on the horse as he ran through the snow.

Couldn't help it, I put in my own background. Sometimes I like graphic looking things in my paintings and the horse was boring without them.

When I started this, I stared at the photo for a long time, until it seemed burned in my mind. Then I began to paint like a crazy woman. Robert can see into my studio from his, we cut a hole in the wall so we can talk through it. This painting was facing him as I painted and he was laughing because I was working so hard and fast. I was using house painting brushes!



Fifteen minutes into the painting, it looked like this. After that, I was having so much fun, I didn't stop to photograph it another time.

There was something about this horse and the snow, and all the fun he was having, that was contagious to me. My friend, Judy Johnson, another equine artist, took this photo.

Donna
Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, Mule and Donkey art,and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

Three New Release Horse pictures, photos. 8X10", matted, $40.

Today's photo shoot.

We drove for miles today, looking for nice photos. Out of several hundred, I have three I liked for certain, maybe there'll be a few more when I get looking at them closely. It takes time to go through the files on the computer, once we get home. It's like a treasure hunt and I can't wait to share them!The colors were beautiful today, the light was perfect. Here's what we found...

"Three Horses"

8X10" Photo

Archival Paper and inks, double mat.

$40 includes shipping.

"Buckskin"

8X10" Photo

Archival Paper and inks, double mat.

$40 includes shipping.

"Dun"

8X10" Photo

Archival Paper and inks, double mat.

$40 includes shipping.

Ordering is easily done using the pay pal buttons provided, or you can Email Me Thanks! Donna Ridgway

Mexican Mule, Update

This little gal couldn't stand to stay like she was. She's tired from working hard, so I dropped the reins to give her a rest. And to create a trail that leads your eye into the picture. I got caught up in the tack, making it the focal point instead of the mule. This is very rough, homemade tack, and I liked the way it looked, even though I think it must be uncomfortable for the mule.

I included a close up, so you can see the detail.

Juliet gave me the scoop on this mule, her name was Camellia, she worked on a sisal plantation in the Yucatan....

Thanks for stopping by my studio. Come back again! We'll have coffee together....
Donna

Email Me if you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, Mule and Donkey art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

Mexican Mule

My friend, Juliet Harrison, posted photos on the EAG forum for our weekly, drawing, party, two hour event. At the end of each week, a different member posts photos, and we can use those photos to create a two hour painting. I worked on this, and it came together fast, it only took an hour. It's 8X10". The gear on the mule looks different than that you see in my neck of the woods, this was a Mexican Mule.

Thanks for stopping by my studio on the net! Tell a friend or two about this blog, subscribe to it if you wish, it will appear each time I post, in your mail box.
donna

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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Daisy, for pure fun.

This is our Daisy. I was purely playing with my paint, and sketched her out in this position. This is 5X7", it's just tiny.
Donna

Come paint with me! Art Lesson, paint horse.

I decided we could work from this photo today. It isn't the greatest photo, the light was bad, and it was kind of dull.

To add some interest to our painting, let's crop it to this view! It brings the horse up close to us.

Now we'll start to draw our horse onto the paper. I'm using a gessoed matboard. I gesso the boards on all sides, and give them about three coats. If you're using watercolor, which I am, be sure you don't touch the boards after you've prepared them. The oil on your hands will create a resist to the watercolor paint and you'll have blotchy spots.

Here are my first marks on the paper. I'm using burnt umber. It's a little grainy because it's an earth tone, but I'm using it anyway. It does wipe off clean if I make a mistake, which is nice in the drawing stage.

Here are some more lines, it's starting to look like our horse all ready!

I'm now adding some more lines, and some background color. Sometimes when your horse doesn't stand out very much, begin to throw some back ground in, it will help your horse come to life. I used thalo blue and thalo green for background color. I threw it on randomly, who cares at this point?

At this point, I added some yellow ochre around the horse's nose. Put in a hint of mane, using French Ultramarine Blue. I use it instead of thalo on the horse because the thalo is staining, it won't wipe clean if you want to move it around. I've added some shadows, highlights and details around the eye. Shaded the back some, put in a hint of shoulder muscles.

Now, I darkened the background by adding some green over the blue and blue over the green. I keep the background darker behind the white of the horse, and lighter behind the brown of the horse. I added burnt sienna to the horse's face to give it some orange tints. Orange and blue are complementary colors, and I like to use them together. I blended along the edge of where the mane begins on the neck. I added some lines in the mane by taking an almost dry brush and rubbing the lines in. I work the highlights the same way on the horse's face. I leave his rump area burnt umber, because I don't want your eye sticking on that place. Our focal point is the face of the horse.
The background felt kind of "raw" to me. I took my big Chinese Hake brush, with the bamboo handle. I dipped it in the water, swished it around, then dropped it into a paper towel. I didn't rub it dry. Just touched it to the towel.

After that, I dipped it into the burnt sienna paint (using a pan watercolor set) and swished it around, I wanted some fairly strong paint on that brush. I then took the brush and smooshed it against the paper in random places. Sometimes, I kind of roll the brush across the surface, the idea is to create random patterns and this brush works best for this. I did the same thing with the thalo blue paint after the sienna had dried. I keep a hair dryer at my desk for drying the painting between applications.

When you work on this surface, you can carefully lay one color on top of another, so long as you do not scrub or rub the brush in anyway. Let each layer dry, before you add another layer.

I also laid in a layer of orange on the horse's face to give him some more color.

I added some lines for the short mane that falls on the withers. I lightened an area over the hip. I worked finding details in the face. After I have several layers of paint on the animal, I can work in details by taking my almost dry brush, and rubbing back ward into the paint. It creates highlights and details. I must be feeling close to finished, because I signed my name.
I shortened the left ear, and added some burnt sienna lines at the base of it, on the neck, that area stood out to much. I added some French Ultramarine Blue on the withers, it brightened up the face. It's 10:30, so I'll stop for tonight. When I look at this again in the morning, I might soften that mane on the withers so it blends more into the rest of the mane.

Hope you enjoyed this painting lesson. Email your painting to me, and I'll post it on the blog! I'll add it right to this post.

I hope the directions were good enough, and had enough demonstrations so you could tell what I did as I went along.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Donna
Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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Criticism vs Critique

My dad is a good art critic. He can look at one of my paintings and say, the ears are to short. The legs are to long. You used the wrong color in that mountain. He matter of factly looks at one of my paintings and immediately sees what I can do to make it better. He doesn't say much, he doesn't elaborate. He gets the job done. Any artist is glad for that kind of helpful critique of their work. My Robert is good at helping me with my artwork. He has ideas. He shares them with me. He doesn't feel bad if I don't use them all, he doesn't stop helping me. He's a good art critic.

The more you paint, the more people who are exposed to your art, the more rank comments you will hear. There's a design flaw in some brains. It's called, "I might not have been able to create that, but I can sure tear it apart!" As an artist, you must develop a thick skin. When you hear a critique, recognize it. When you hear criticism, ignore it.

Let's say you're sitting at an art show. You were juried in by 7 experts in your field. 20 artists were chosen to show their art at this show, and 500 were turned down by these 7 jurors. A person who's attending the art show walks up to your booth and gives a cursory glance at your work. With a barely hidden sneer in their voice, they begin to tell you all about the paintings their dear old grandmother produces and how they're far superior to your paintings. Don't get mad, get even. Ask them in your very nicest voice, "Where are her paintings showing in this show, I'll go visit her booth when I take a break." They'll probably be to dumb to know they've just been smeared, but you'll have satisfaction!

Turn downs from jurors. As you progress as an artist, you might wish to enter some juried shows. Don't take the judges decisions personally. Jurors have many things to look at when selecting artwork for a show. They're trying to present paintings as a whole, that will show well together. You might have done a beautiful painting that doesn't fit the exact theme of the show as well as some other painting does. These judges have tough decisions to make. If your painting doesn't get into one show, and you believe it's show quality, don't hesitate to send slides of it off to other competitions. When a show juror sends you a critique, which a few of them do, take the comments to heart and use what the juror said to improve upon later paintings. Good honest critique will help you improve your skills. Recognize this tool and use it, you'll become a better artist!

Donna

Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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Fantasy painting. Unicorn, Fairy.

This painting started out simply enough, it was supposed to be a two hour project on the EAG forum. Now it's taken over my life. I've painted this 6 or 7 times, by scraping off paint, scrubbing it back to the canvas, and reapplying the painting! I still don't like it.

I've had my tree person standing upright, and now I bent him over. I don't like him this way either.

I'll keep refining him until he looks like I want him to look. I think I'll go get a photo of my grandpa Allen, he had the most ferocious, old Scotsman, eyes you'd ever want to see. And the scariest eyebrows....I think of him when I'm painting this tree person. :)

This dumb painting has caused me to wake up in the middle of the night, thinking of a story to go along with it....I could never bear to do fantasy art, I get to caught up in it.

If I ever finish this to my satisfaction, I'll post it again.
Donna
Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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Click to see Flower Napper on Link Tiles

You've seen this guy before on my blog, but I'm posting him again because he's one of the featured paintings on Link Tiles today. Link Tiles is fun, kind of a concentration game of artist's images. So if you go there, you can play concentration with Flower Napper. I think he'll only be there today.
Donna
Remember, you can find horse art, wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.
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