Motivation--and drawing hooves!

I got motivated this week. Hooray! Usually, summertime is not my most productive time to create new work. It's just too dang hot!

I know I want to do a large watercolor and ink work, and was befuddled on subject matter.

I want to draw some riders, thought I...
And I want a fantasy scene...
With several horses and riders...

And I want to invent and design my own tack...

So, the a pre-lim sketch for one of the three riders was born for a piece tentativlely titled, "Tonight We Ride."

I have to do this one in many pieces. I want it to be BIG. I am doing the front end of the horses on one sheet, the riders on an other, the hindquarters on another; you get the idea. Then it all comes together on one big sheet of Arches hot-press watercolor paper.

Now some thoughts on drawing hooves: they aren't easy to do. They have to have the correct angle and attach to the pastern and the pastern needs to bend at the right angle according to the motion of the entire leg and how it supports the entire body...but I digress.

I love drawing hooves, but it wasn't always that way. Hooves frustrated the hell out of me! I was determined to learn them. I filled a few sketchbooks with: you guessed it--HOOVES.

Once I had a bit of a method and formula, drawing them became easier. Then, it became FUN.

I think of hooves as bells or cups, and learned how to get them from all angles. I practiced and sketched like crazy. I studied horses on film, in real life and in pictures. One angle in particular used to challenge me and annoy me to no end: the three quarter underside view showing a half-moon of a horseshoe. ARGH!

A few more sketchbook pages were devoted to that half-moon horseshoe underside three quarter view angle.

Now, I love drawing that hoof angle. And, I love drawing the BIG hoof: the draft hoof.

I had a field day drawing this horse; I let myself draw the half-moon horseshoe angle on a big draft-type horse.

I also just love the sound of big draft horse hoof hitting the ground. There is no other sound like it.

I am also designing my own saddles and bridles for this piece. This one is all about fun and imagination!

I will post the progress so you can join me in the creation. I am not rushing this one. Gonna let it evolve at its own pace...