2014 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese calendar, and this little article caught my attention in the free Jan. 16th, 2014 London Metro newspaper that you pick up on any tube seat. "Thrills of Glorious Driftwood" showed a photograph of James Doran Webb's commission for a Singapore nature park (below).
Made from driftwood that Doran-Webb has local people collect from around the shores of his adopted home in the Phillipines, the pieces take up to six months to assemble over steel skeletons which he constructs after exhaustive research of the animals' physiology and habitat.
At first glance, I thought I was going to read about some connection with the famous theatre production "War Horse", where very realistic life-size puppets of horses tell the story of a young boy's quest to be re-united with his beloved steed during World War I; but this article was unrelated, and talked about the work of an artist who is motivated by the desire to capture motion using found materials.
I looked him up and found a video, and listened to him talk about his work. What really intrigued me was when he spoke of how much time he takes to study the animals in their natural habitat before he attempts any of his sculptures. This is the bit I usually miss out - the looking and learning before I put pencil to paper, and I have often felt frustration when trying to capture the movement of living things in my drawings and feeling that they weren't quite right. So I thought I'd make a real effort next time I wanted to draw an animal to take time to really look at it from various viewpoints before I put pencil to paper. I wasn't going to study it in depth, just make sure I understood what it looked like, where its weight was distibuted etc. - all the things I have read about but forget.
Doran-Webb video
Doran-Webb video
Off I went to the V&A, where I found this delightful little sculpture of a horse which had come to an abrupt halt and looked like it was just about to rear. This bronze sculpture is very small, only about 10 inches/25cm high, and has been displayed on top of a bank of drawers in such a way that people can pick it up and handle it. This really helped me to feel the bulk of the rear quarters compared to the relatively thin legs, so that when I came to draw it, I bore these things in mind. Details like the tail nearly touching the ground, the head being pulled in towards the body and weight being taken by the back legs all influenced my final sketch in a way that I wouldn't have thought about if I hadn't taken nearly half an hour just to look and feel the object before starting the drawing.
My finished sketch is below, using a 4B pencil only, and making the darker tones darker and darker until I felt the contrast was right.
References:
Metro (free London newspaper), Thursday Januuary 16, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMlBEShx7Uc&list=PLA00F4645231E16C2
http://www.jamesdoranwebb.com/artist/profile.php
