horse

Inktober Day 20

| Gina Lento

Eleven more days to go! Whoo hoo!

Today’s prompt is “bluff.” I thought about sketching people playing cards or a game. I also considered poker or Texas Hold’em, you know, games where you have to bluff. I bluff all the time when we play “Cover Your Assets.” This is a great game that I highly recommend but you need to be devious with the high point cards. It’s not a game that you play with sore losers because it’s a little ruthless, LOL. You steal other players cards during the game to build your own pile for points so sore losers whine a lot during the game. You can find it on Amazon and occasionally in a specialty toy store.

That would have been the obvious choice but as I was doing my sketches, I thought of that canyon out West that keeps showing up in movies. You know the one. It was used in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” when Indy goes over the cliff and that same cliff was used in the new “Star Trek” with the young James T Kirk speeding in his stepfather’s antique ‘Vette to the tune of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” and sends it over the side, quipping to the police officer who chased him, “Is there a problem officer?” Now THAT’S a bluff!

I then pictured a cowboy who brakes to a stop on his horse because they both realized that they were at a dead end at the top of a bluff. Two eagles look on annoyingly at the disturbance. There were a bunch of children’s books illustrated and/or written by Glen Rounds that had these quirky cowboys and horses and those inspired this sketch. I have picked up one or two of his used books over the years because I like to have old illustrators on hand for inspiration and I was fond of his quirky western characters. It’s funny how things you learn or read as a child still have influence as you get older.

Inktober Day 20 Bluff Pen and Ink Sketch of a cowboy and his horse skidding to a stop at the top of a bluff, overlooking another cliff that has a nesting eagle who's a bit annoyed at the disturbance above. There is a hazy sun overhead and another eagle flying over to investigate.
Inktober Day 20 Bluff

Horse

| Gina Lento

Another project that I have been working on is horse illustrations/art. Something I did a long time ago that I picked up again just recently. We used to own racehorses and I would sit in the paddock and sketch the horses as they were getting tacked up and harnessed for races. A lot of the horse folks would peek over my shoulder as I used to sketch. It was a lot of fun and I used to love it. We haven’t had a racehorse for a while now but it was awesome. My husband used to drive our horses in the races.

I also collect model horses and being part of the model horse world, you have to go to Kentucky for the Breyerfest at least once. Breyerfest is an annual model horse event held at the Kentucky Horse Park every year. I went a few times and it was a lot of fun. I did a lot of things there, like watch a polo match, that I was never able to do before. I was able to see John Henry and Cigar, were stabled there. (John Henry was a naughty biting horse so there was extra fencing around his paddock.) Some racing greats like Man O’ War are buried there. There are breeds from around the world there so you can see them in person. My personal fave is the Akhal Take. I want one.

The American Saddlebred Association is headquartered there and that brings us to today’s sketch. This was originally intended to be posted on Independence Day but didn’t, and it was the next one in my sketch book, so I am posting it today.

American Saddlebreds, aka Saddle Horses, were bred to essentially be gaited riding horses. They are a true American breed and they have a long history for gentle temperament, used as mounts in battle, performance in the show ring, as well as just pleasure riding.

Chocolate Palomino Saddle horse with rider with red white and blue banners for a national holiday. Horse is doing an gaited pace.
American Saddle Horse Sketch in my Pentalic Watecolor Sketchbook

Inchies Day 10

| Gina Lento

This is Day 10 of the Inchie Challenge with two days to go. Today’s prompt is “eclipse.” When I first saw the prompt. I thought of a bunch of little partially covered moons, but I also thought of a “man in the moon” concept and the “man” bemused that his light was being blocked by the sun.

I played with both concepts to see how they would look. The nice thing about working small is you aren’t using up a lot of art supplies to experiment and play and you can see quickly if something isn’t working. I did a second man (boy?) in the moon because the first one wasn’t as crisp and clear as I would have liked it to be. I added the dark background, stars and some “satellites.”

2x2 inch square art...Moon faces with the light slowly being taken away to eclipse the face of the moon, which looks like a boy/man. Also two 2x2 squares of moon rocks
Moon Eclipse Inchies and moon rocks

As I was working, and being a horse lover, the term “eclipse” made me think of the name of the British racehorse, “Eclipse” who’s descendants are still on the thoroughbred tracks all over the world even today. The American Eclipse Award commemorates the memory of Eclipse and the awards are given out annually to recognize outstanding achievements such as “American Horse of the Year,” American Champion 3 year old colt, American Champion 3 year old filly, American Champion Steeplechase horse, etc. The award is also given out to the Owner, Breeder, Trainer and Jockey of the Year.

A large amount of race horses today carry Eclipse in their bloodlines.

Tiny sketch of Eclipse the thoroughbred racehorse from the UK. Pen and Ink drawing with watercolor (burnt umber and Sap green)
Eclipse the thoroughbred horse (UK)

My little Eclipse isn’t meant to be a portrait, just an Inchie. But sometimes drawing whimsy, when you can draw the real thing so well, takes a bit of practice to make him look like a cute illustration and not a breed profile photo, LOL. If you research Eclipse on line, the portraits of Eclipse in the 1700’s look awkward. I don’t think he had a snaky neck but that’s how horses were painted back then. I would love to see better drawings because horses like Eclipse were closer to the foundation stock of the Thoroughbred.

World Watercolor month

| Gina Lento

There is a challenge going on called World Watercolor Month. There is a list of prompts and all that but you aren’t required to use the list. I haven’t done this challenge in previous years but since I am in the middle of working on a project that is a mix of watercolor and gouache, I figured I would post these for the Watercolor month.

I like to do self inflicted challenges. They are good for keeping me in the creative mode. The latest is going back to my roots and creating some horses. I used to draw and paint horses all of the time when I was young. I had a little handbag I would carry with me that had my “herd” in it. I can’t believe I shlepped my tiny Breyer stablemates and other horses around with me and they are still Live Show Quality to this day. The reason why I stopped drawing horses and segued into plein air and other art is because I didn’t want to be pigeon holed doing one thing. I never regretted that decision and the many, many years of painting plein air and sketching on location has made me a much more diverse and versatile artist.

I am not sure I’ll be posting horses every day. These take a while, but I will be posting something with watercolor, even if I am out “guerrilla” sketching.

Today’s horse is a Morgan. The first one I did in my sketchbook. I picked the Morgan Horse since it is the first breed of horse that was created in the United States. The Morgan Horse breed came from one stallion, “Figure,” or “Justin Morgan’s horse. From that one stallion, we have horses like the Standardbred, American Saddlebred and other American breeds. You can read a story about this horse in a book by Marguerite Henry called “Justin Morgan had a Horse.” It’s a children’s book with wonderful illustrations by Wesley Dennis. I still have my original book.

Horse Morgan Bay Watercolor Mixed Media

Horse on a bike sketch

| Gina Lento

I am taking Mike Lowery’s workshop “Getting Paid to Draw” and on our Zoom call, we were given the task to draw a horse on bike while he did his lesson.

This is my horse on a wobbly bike. This is untouched except that I removed my notes around it. I might take this one further.

PS, this is a good class!

Black and white w/grey line drawing of a horse on a bicycle.

Cloudwalker

| Gina Lento

Cloudwalker loves playing with the Snow and Frost Faeries. He loves to use his wings to make strong blizzards. He’s sad because winter is over.

This is the last page in my St Patrick’s Day sketchbook. I hope you enjoyed these pages. All of the sketches were very involved and had a lot of layers in order to produce each creature. There were a lot of steps to each page. I loved doing it but I am glad this sketchbook is finished.

I will to make a new sketchbook to start a new series/storytelling session for April. April is usually International Fake Journal Month. I have a few days to decide what I will do for April.