At the Dutchess County Fair yesterday, the farriers competed to make a perfect horseshoe. They had exactly one hour to create a standard shoe design, starting with a straight, rectangular bar of steel.
An hour was about right for me to try to capture a keyframe of the action. I watched Pennsylvania farrier Elmer Glick wielding his two-and-a-half pound hammer, which was moving so fast I had to paint it as a blur.
From where I was standing in the middle of the tent, he was lit by cool light spilling in from the sides. I contrived the background tones to be darker on the right side of his silhouette. That made his hair and his shirt stand out light against dark. I lightened the background on the left side to make his face and hammer read clearly.
This video (link to YouTube video, jump ahead to 2:35 for farrier only) gives a sense of the controlled chaos and energy of the moment. By the way, can everyone see these embedded Facebook videos?
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Another great sketch James!
ReplyDeleteI can view the embedded video but the Facebook link is broken.
Sorry. When I play this all I get is a white space where the video should be.
ReplyDeleteJust get the old 404 Error
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know, Kevin, Glenn, and Unknown. I've replaced the video embed and link with a YouTube video.
ReplyDeleteHey, Jim, Perhaps I misunderstood the ending commentary. Is there supposed to be a link to the work of some of the caricaturists? Either way, great to see this; always love the Dutchess fair postings.
ReplyDeleteGreat video, links work. Ditto what Steve said about links to caricaturists - ? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSteve and Kathleen, Here are links for some of the caricatures mentioned at 4:14
ReplyDeleteAlani Jimenez: https://www.youtube.com/user/alanijimenez
Sergio Mateos: https://www.instagram.com/orijinalserge/
Guanto: https://www.instagram.com/otnaug/
So, how long did it take your subject to complete his task of making a standard shoe?
ReplyDeleteBug, it took exactly one hour, all the way from a length of bar stock to the finished shoe.
ReplyDelete