This time, the idea was to use the three horses in a casual pose, with their halters on, looking over the fence with the mountains in the background. We had to wait until it got warm enough to clip April (Alfie and Sega were clipped earlier) and I wanted some green in the background.
A few weeks ago, Jan Lukens, my artist of choice, came to visit us for the photo shoot. It was so fun to do this all over again, after 12 years. He lives in North Carolina so it was not a long drive for him. It was a lovely day, clear and blue sky.
Jan started by taking photos of each horse. Since the picture will include mostly the head and neck, part of the chest and legs (front only) that is what he concentrated on. So we pulled each horse out and snapped away. My goal is to show the horses as they really are, untouched. Sega's ears will remain uneven, for example. Here is Sega.
He tooks lots of head shots of Sega:
Sometimes it was difficult to get their ears up.
We then moved on to Alfie. He is the most photogenic horse I have ever known. Jan loved taking his photo!
We then pulled them out together so Jan could "size" them. Alfie is just over 16 hands and Sega is just under. So they are very similar in size although Sega is much rounder. They were not too happy at first.
More of Alfie's movie star looks:
We then had to get April out. Because she is on stall rest we had to be careful and kept her out only a short period of time. She was very well behaved, as usual.
April is large, over 17 hands. We had to size her too, to Alfie.
The portrait will be large, approximately 30 x 40 and in oil. We'll show you the progress as Jan progresses. It is such an interesting process and he was alert to light, shadows, how it all works together. One of Jan's paintings is in the National Sporting Life Library in Middleburg, Virginia. For more photos of his work, go to www.janlukens.com. He is the real thing. We can't wait to see how it all turns out. Stay tuned!
beautiful!
ReplyDeleteNancy
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