The Pony is Back!

Yes the Pony is back! As you may know, I used to accompany my BF to polo matches in Germany and the Netherlands as he photographs the matches. The spring and summer seasons, sadly, have been cancelled and looks like even for the rest of the year due to the Corona crisis. Hence you have not been seeing any paintings of ponies lately. Then one day, I was flicking through my small sketchbooks and found a number of pony drawings I had done during the past years when going to Polo Matches! That’s when I decided I ought to start practicing again, especially as I’ve recently began drawing all kinds of animals.

Initial Sketch

Before I left for our weekend break in the country house, I did in fact begin one, but got distracted with working on other pieces during the break. I got a page out from my A3 Mixed Media sketchbook by Cansons and began sketching using a 2B graphite pencil. Then I traced over the outline with some oil pastels. This would firstly disguise the pencil marks but also may help retain the outlines when painting over with acrylic by resisting the paint.

Adding Layers

I thought it would be an idea to create a layered mixed media painting for the painting. Although we start with the background first, I made a rough colouring all over using a selection of acrylic inks. All kinds of green for the background, for instance, followed by some red and orange for the horse. My intention for the background was to create some negative space effects for the trees.

Once the inks were dry, I glued in a few collages of paper napkins and deli paper. Textures were also added as I wanted to try my new products for the first time. On the pony’s mane I spread some “Structuring Gel with Crystal Fragments” (Lucas). Fine Pumice Gel Golden) was smoothed on the grass area but I discovered that rather being a texturizing medium, it was more a primer for other mediums like pencils or pastels so once that was dry, I drew in some stripes with soft pastels.

Negative Space and More

I painted my negative space in the background using white acrylic ink. Luckily with the underlying colours, the white turned more aqua so could definitely pass as being the sky! I added some streaks of fluorescent red ink on the horse for fun, just to see how it would react when I painted on top with Antelope Brown ink. I must say it worked really well!

Adding Details

The eyes were done with Payne’s Grey ink, making them look as doe-eyed as possible. Feeling that more could be added, I thought it would be an idea to embellish the horse a bit. Flowers were then doodled in with white acrylic marker. And what a great idea that was! And here is my kawaii little pony…

So good to be back drawing a pony again! I’m glad I still remember how to draw one too. In the past, I would merely sketch them or paint with portable watercolours whilst on location. The mixed media and negative space in the background worked really well here, and I’m pleased with the colour combinations too. Now I really should draw ponies more often along with other animals!