Gordaen’s Blog

“Murky Gallop” - Oil - 20″x16″

I had an idea for a painting (that would have been nothing like this) and was browsing Deviant Art for some additional ideas, when I came across a photo of a horse jumping. Besides the cool-factor in medieval times, I don’t think too much about horses, but the photo really caught my eye and I had to incorporate it into a painting.

My new idea for a painting ended up changing quite a few times as I worked on this. At first, the cloak was going to be tattered. Then I decided I was going to make the figure semi-transparent. After that, I changed my mind again and went with a more fog-like look. I wanted to remove much of the detail so that the viewer would piece it together himself/herself. Unfortunately, I removed a lot more of the detail than I intended, but it’s still fairly neat.

As always, my digital camera failed to capture the proper hue, contrast, etc. After level adjustment and lens correction in Photoshop, this is as close as I could get to the way it looks in person. For some reason this digital copy makes the rock stand out way too much and the mountains in the background are barely there. I think the horse also looks a bit more flat because the left hind leg is difficult to see.