Painting Horses

i've been working on developing ideas for a mural at a private residence.  horses seemed appropriate, but i suck at drawing horses.  so the challenge ensued.

i scrawled through a half a roll of newsprint playing around with ink, trying to get the shapes, lines, and gait right.  then i burned through another 10 cans of paint trying to replicate the idea on the wall of my studio, but nothing was working.  finally i got the hang of what i was doing, and simplified my drawing into a few short strokes with the brush.

i painted a series of 8 on paper i picked up at a shop in insadong, in seoul.  then i decided i wanted to create a printed pattern layer for the background.  one of my friends collects japanese woodblock prints, and the thing i always find most fascinating about them is the layers of patterns that meander around the narratives.  i've copied many of the patterns that i've found in his prints, so i used a couple of those blocks to create the background for the horse.

up next, is getting this image painted on the wall!