Lakota and a bunch of straight lines

Lakota, practicing his “greeter” pose.

Let me start by saying straight lines are not my favorite thing. So here we have a really nice-looking horse surrounded by—straight lines. My long-ago mentor used to say that you should draw everything free-hand so it looked like your lines were making an artistic mark. Then he would say, somewhat sarcastically, that if you wanted a straight line you should use a ruler. OK, ruler in hand I have made an unusually (for me) large number of straight lines to successfully enclose Lakota in a relatively realistic-looking stall.

Not to worry, when I start to paint I can rarely make myself stay within perfectly straight lines. So it will look “painterly” in spite of myself when it’s all done!