How I Make the Carousel Horse

[lizzydo]

Since there was so much interest in the "Carousel" from last month and people wondering how I rendered them to be so smooth and shiny, I thought I would work another and take photos of my steps. I will fill you in on my application procedures as I go along. First let me state that I work on smooth acid free matt board, primarily to have a nice cushion with the pressure I may use. The smoothness of the board also allows me to keep a smooth blending of the colors I will use. I also like to used colored board since I like it as an under-color to my pencil colors, in most instances it really makes them pop. I use Prismacolors and am lucky enough to have the majority of them as the Berol Prismacolors which have a lovely "buttery" application. (Berol is the manufacturer of these pencils about 20+ years ago, before they were sold and some changes made in the making of the pencils- rare to find them now)
So here is the reference photo I used (my own from the same local carousel)

And here is the set up of tracing the image then transferring to matt board

Now the traced piece - waiting for the colors

[lizzydo]

I also work in sections - almost completing the area before moving onto the next. With the carousel horses that would break it up to left mane, forelock, bridle, leather reins and front dress piece, neck, ear, cheek, eye area, nose, mouth. I may go back from time to time as I work on other places if I see something that doesn't work for me, but overall when I finish an area it pretty much stays. Here is the next series....
Adding the highlights first (the color of the board is truest in this photo):

I am putting down the main first color (I will use non-sharpend pencils here, putting it on with strokes that follow the form I am working on):

Adding on additonal colors to get the colors of the mane:

The colors I am using on the mane are: Cream (914), Wrm Grey 90% (1058), Copenhagen Blue (906), White (938), Bronze (1028), Black (935)
I start soft, then as I add more color I tend to press a bit harder blending color as I go. I will then go over it all with the colorless blender to get that smooth look.
PS sorry the camera shots are not consistent - still learning that angle of the process

[Jayde]

Thanks for taking the trouble to show us your process Lizzy

[marieUK]

Thank you Lizzy, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this

[Kiwi Girl]

Thanks also for this.

Are you changing the horse's colour? Or is the green of the mane going to be black?

[Lexycat]

Thanks for showing the process, what make is the coloured matt board, I would be interested in trying it myself?

[lorriecc]

That's looking good. It's very detailed on the shiny part of the horse.

It's appreciated when people do take time to put art work on here

[lizzydo]

Thanks for taking an interest in this process! Kiwigirl - the colors are really distorted in the photo, I only used the colors I listed, I kept the photo because it showed the general "look" of the work. I apologize and will try to do better with my photos .Lexycat, I couldn't tell you the actual maker of the board because most of my "scraps" I use I have in my matt board stash- When I buy new matt board I always make sure it is acid free. If you go to your local framer, craft store, or art store - just look for the smooth acid free.
Here is an update for today and again I apologize for the photo....
As you can see I did the forelock and started working on the bridle-

This is closer to the true colors-

Colors used for bridle, deco yellow(1011), metallic gold (950), white (938), wrm grey 90% (1058) [for the gold medallion], metallic gold (950), terra cotta (944), scarlet lake (923) white (938), wrm grey 90% (1058) [for the rest of the bridle]. There are times that after all the blending I do I will need to reapply different color (to lighten or darken an area) when this is necessary I will lightly color over blended area then reblend with the colorless blender.
I really hope this is making some sense to you all

[KarenESP]

I will definately be studying up on THIS !!! Thanks soooooo much for that!

[KarenESP]

[birdlady]

I did a carousel a while back and love how your doing yours so I am in for the progress on it. Love the colors and the detail already.

Laurie

[lizzydo]

Well spent a wonderful mothers day watching my daughter play in a rock orchestra (played Beatles, Rubber Soul and Revolution- both were superb!) so only have a couple of photos from this morning
Here I started on the reins - you can see where I overlayed yellow ochre before I blended it in...

Here is the completed rein and the start of the (what I call) front shield

Colors used on reins - Burnt Ochre (943) Dark Brown (946), Yellow Ochre (942) and some Wrm Grey 90% (1058). Colors used on lower left front shield that I started here was White (938) and Deco yellow (1011). Again just laying down a solid base color - will list the additional colors I will be using tomorrow
Hope all mothers had a great day today (2 legged kids and 4 )
ps sorry the light was reflecting on the drawing so colors are not quite there- will try better photos tomorrow

[ArtbyPeggy]

This is great! Thanks for showing your process

Peggy

[lizzydo]

Here is what I did today As you can see I am working on the body now:
I start by putting in the white reflection the I fill in the body with Putty Beige(1083) then over coloring that with Cream (914). Use blending stick to combine those two colors and smooth it out. I colored lightly under the mane as I wanted the color of the board to show through and darken for a shadow

Here I used Wrm grey 90% (1058)to shadow up the neck. Again using blender smoothing that out. Then following the pattern of spots on the reference photo used the same Wrm Grey 90% I colored (medium pressure not sharpened pencil) in a circular pattern, using the blender I then smoothed out the outside of the circle blending it into the cream/putty body - that seems to give it the "spray" effect of the spots

Forgot to mention that the front shield colors are deco yellow (1011) Yellow ochre (942) bronze (1028) Wrm Grey 10% (1050) White (938) and pumpkin orange (1032) and Dk Brown (946)

[clydeine]

Thank you Liz.. enjoy following along!