Value Project Write-Up (2/2) - Horse in the Mountains

Describe

I made my piece by combining the two images in the other post. My background is of a picture I took in the Rocky Mountains. The horse within my drawing is from a picture off of a free images website. The horse used to have a rider and a saddle on it, but is now just running around on his own. I made my piece only using graphite pencil. I sketched out the whole image roughly, then drew in detail the background, then moved to the foreground and the horse.

Analyze

The main principles of design that I feel I focused on was texture and value. I tried to create texture in the different faces of the mountains in the background, as well as the clouds above them. I also tried to create texture within the trees in the background, and within the hair in the horse. For value, I really tried to portray the light and how it hit the mountains, and the horse, so that there could be interesting value in the shadows and shapes. I only drew part of the picture that I took because the measurement of the picture didn't translate 1:1 with the paper size. I decided to title my piece "Horse in the Mountains". I know its a pretty literal title but I like when titles are literal because I think its funny, especially when applied to serious pieces.

Interpretations

I like simple meanings within my pieces. I don't feel like i normally make pieces that have extremely deep messages. I think that meaning that someone could take out of this piece is to just appreciate the beauty of the outside world. The earth can be beautiful, and so can the animals and humans be within it. For me, the background mountains have a lot of meaning. When i took this picture, it was on a week long trip with my dad that we took to the Rocky Mountains, and this is a picture from where we were in Colorado. The horse does not have as much significance to me, I just wanted to draw a horse because i enjoy it and they're beautiful animals. The story that i think of in this piece is just a wild horse running through the rocky mountains without human interference.

Judgement

In this piece my strengths i feel is the value i managed to get. I really like the shape of the mountains and how they look, and the clouds. One of the areas i actually need to work on is working efficiently, because i didnt work on this a lot in class and had to work on it during my own time. I wanted to draw how i could draw a horse well but i actually feel like its the worst part of the piece. If I could go back id figure out whats wrong with the horse and actually fix it. To me, his body looks slightly wonky and i dont like how his face looks. Overall though, i feel like the piece turned out successfully because i do like the value and the detail in it. I think one thing i really like the most in this piece is how the clouds look.