Since 9th January 2021, every Saturday I've pulled on my boots, wrapped up like an eskimo with sketchbook in hand and walked up to the local stables to draw horses from life. It's my goal for this year to draw horses, from from life, once every week and I'm now on week 4. As you can probably tell, I love a good challenge. It helps keep me focused. The weather has been bitterly cold recently but I've persevered, even if just for an hour or two. It makes sense that this weekly challenge now becomes apart of my 100 day project 😊

Photos are really useful to use as references but you're not actually looking at the subject in front of you. Working from photos becomes the camera's view of the world instead of the artist's unique vision. With a photo you can't feel the subject, smell or see first hand the surroundings or experience the ever changing light. All these aspects of working from life makes an artist's work completely original to them.

I'm becoming increasingly aware of how much I rely on photos, which may suit some, but I realise that this has to change for me to feel more fulfilled in what I'm creating and to get the most out of my work. At art school we had human life drawing each week and because of the consistency, my drawing skills improved over time. I'm so out of practice but it is my mission to pursue this way of working as well as using photos as a guide.

The horse is constantly moving and you have to work quickly. I was finding today that I'd be drawing Inca's right eye and then she'd move so then I'd jump into drawing her left eye. When she moved back to the initial position I would then work back into the previous eye. It's a continuous case of hopping back and fourth from one study to the next. It's so incredibly difficult. I can also see that the proportions of the head in the top left don't seem to be right. I think the whole head should be longer 🤔 I'm going to look into this and see where I've gone wrong.