"The White Hart" Work-in-progress

http://justinraven.deviantart.com/art/quot-The-White-Hart-quot-WIP-158841418

"The White Hart" from the original Arthurian tales in the Mabinogion (the story of Geraint/Gereint and Enid). This is chalk pastel on toned paper, my usual technique, so far I have only used two chalk pencils and about four colours. The hart still needs to be warmed up and more highlights added to the streaming light, some of the light cleaned up. I'm not adding in the lower half of the hart, those lines are there just to give me some perspective and anatomy. I really like not using blacks in my paintings, it forces me to think about colour and value contrast. It always amazes me how when you know the value of a particular colour, it doesn't necessarily work at first, but you have to trust yourself and keep working, cause it all starts to come together later. I always start background first and then move into the foreground. I tend to use the primary triad in varying degrees of emphasis on different hues. Hope you guys like it. There is going to be a gold crown/collar on the hart's neck, a rose bush on the right foreground area, and another bush, maybe mistletoe, on the left foreground. These wouldn't necessarily be seen together in nature, but this is a symbolic image, so most of the signifiers have some sort of ancient or cultural significance relating to the mythology of the White Hart.