After linking my project with the film Spirit; stallion of the cimarron I had to watch the film again after so many years and that made me want to revisit the war pant. Mostly because it was really fun before to work purposely trying to smudge and dirty the paper to create the rubbed back out effect with an eraser.
After doing these two drawings I've made the decision to move away from the war paint and move back into the more natural horses I have been experimenting with, with natural materials. I feel like with the war paint drawings the eye is immediately drawn to the bright coloured paint and the horse form is secondary to the man made marks. This isn't what I want for my final piece.. I want my piece to boldly show the horse spirit and natural form in all its naked glory and that to be the center of attention, not some brightly coloured pretty 'horse make up'.
I do really like the idea of keeping the connection to Native Indians, but more to their beliefs and respect for mother nature rather than their mark on the horse. Now that I think about it the war paint is almost like man's negative touch on the horse for Native Indians, where they're bringing the horse into man's world of hate for fellow man, pain and death for war. - Definitely not something I want to portray in my work, I don't want war to be what people think of when they see my work, I want the horses to take the main stage.
