inspiration - song and poetry

Words can create beautiful images and be an inspiration for artists. Here are Leonard Cohen's moving words from the Ballad of the Absent Mare:

'Oh the world is sweet the world is wide and she's there where the light and the darkness divide and the steam's coming off her she's huge and she's shy and she steps on the moon when she paws at the sky

And she comes to his hand but she's not really tame She longs to be lost he longs for the same and she'll bolt and she'll plunge through the first open pass to roll and to feed in the sweet mountain grass
...

And he leans on her neck and he whispers low "Whither thou goest I will go" And they turn as one and they head for the plain No need for the whip Ah, no need for the rein'

- Ballad of the Absent Mare, Leonard Cohen

Inspiration from film

A lot of inspiration for my drawing has come from film - especially films seen in childhood. The Black Stallion (MGM) was definitely one of those films and I'm sure many people have wonderful memories of seeing Cass Ole (the black Arabian stallion) galloping across the screen, with Alec apparently hanging on for dear life. As well as sending the Arabian breeding industry into overdrive, and rocketing Walter Farley (the author of the book) to fame, the image of the boy playing on the beach with the Black really entered into many people's dreams. The beach scenes expressed something about the relationship people have with horses that is very hard to put into words. Something that seemed to diminish after Alec and the Black return to civilisation.

I watched this film again recently and was blown away by the absolutely beautiful cinematography of Caleb Deschanel. Although there have been many beautiful images of horses in film since (Seabiscuit, Legend, Hidalgo, LOTR to name some that come to mind), this is really the original horse film for me and will continue to inspire me for many years to come!

Watch the trailer at the MGM site for a trip down memory lane ...

three horses galloping

This pastel drawing is all about movement. I let go of any carefulness in showing the way horses actually move, anatomical correctness etc. My sole inspiration was the feeling of flying!

saddle drawing

Drawing of saddle - have to practice drawing tack as well as the horses themselves!

cats

After the well-defined lines and musculature on horses, I find cats can be very challenging. They are very clearly and symmetrically structured, but it is partly hidden under fur. Siamese and other short hairs are a little easier. Another challenge with cats is to capture their often quirky characters, while keeping a sense of their elegance and presence.

Drawing and Finding Characters

Looking back over my sketchbooks I found some drawings of people (!) and noticed a pattern in them. As a fiction writer, I find I sometimes draw characters in order to better understand them. The pencil drawing here is of JRR Tolkien’s Eowyn (from the Lord of the Rings). The drawing is clearly expressing one part of her character – that which is vulnerable and open. It does not really express the more war-like elements of her story. I was really thinking about this aspect of her characterisation after seeing the film interpretation and finding Eowyn more fragile than I had imagined her. A contrasting drawing is that of Elsa (a character from my own fiction manuscript).

I drew this image at a time when I was imagining her character evolving from a quite passive girlhood to a more severe adulthood. Again, this is only one element of her character, but the drawing allowed me to really witness her potential to become a dangerous and even frightening person - thus helping me in my writing!

Arab horse in ink

Arabian horse in ink. This was a reasonably quick sketch (due to how quickly the ink was drying). I wanted to get that floating feeling across, that is so typical of the way Arab horses move. Also the way they can appear to be gazing serenely into the distance while thundering over the ground!

drawing techniques 2

Here I have built up this pastel image using light and shade rather than simple shapes (as shown in the previous post).

Drawing techniques

Here are two pages from my sketch book. Both show the shapes I have used to block out the basic form of the horse. I often begin with the oval(ish) shape around the horse's shoulder and the shape of the hindquarters, brought together by the oval of the horse's barrel (belly). Many subjects can be broken into circles and cylinders, but you need to keep track of the overall energy of your subject.

Snow Leopard

This pastel (on toothed Colourfix) sketch was based on the snow leopard at Melbourne Zoo.