For this project I painted in the style of Franz Marc.
These were two of his paintings that I mainly used as a reference to create my painting. Franz was an animal painter, so I chose to paint a horse, thinking it would be easier than other animals. Also he was famous for his vibrant use of color, which I tried to incorporate into my painting. Similar to his, I also used landscape in the background since most of his work includes a natural setting.
This was my final painting. The hardest parts of completing this painting would be trying to give the horse accurate anatomy (it has 3 legs in my painting) and to figure out which colors worked well together in the composition. Even though I used Marc's work as a reference, I tried to make the work my own by making the colors more intense and using more detail in shading in the horse. I tried to combine both together so people would know that it would be inspired by him, but it's my work. I definitely think I painted in his style more in the background, and made the horse more complex than he usually would.
These were the colored sketches that I used for planning. Its very undetailed, but I didn't want to spend too much time on it to ensure that I'd complete the actual painting on time. My main focus for these was to figure out which color combinations to use, learn the general anatomy of a horse, and figure out which position/composition I favored most. I decided to go with the yellowish-orange sky and have the horse be farther away. It was unplanned to add the yellow streaks in the background, but I felt that the left side seemed a little boring and lacked contrast. Although my linework and movement is a little flawed, I think it still worked out.
One of the newer techniques that I learned how to do was applying a tonal background in a painting. I found it very helpful towards the painting and figuring out where everything was supposed to go. It was very unfamiliar to me, but the brown used benefited by not distorting the colors, but made them a little less intense and overwhelming since some of the paints can be translucent.
One of the newer techniques that I learned how to do was applying a tonal background in a painting. I found it very helpful towards the painting and figuring out where everything was supposed to go. It was very unfamiliar to me, but the brown used benefited by not distorting the colors, but made them a little less intense and overwhelming since some of the paints can be translucent.