Thoroughbred….Finito

I left off around here from my last post in June. 



I procrastinated a lot because I really get scared when I know I have to paint hair.    Once I regained my focus, sat down and settled into " just keep it simple" .  Paint a strand at a time.  I was able to
get something down that resembled hair.



After the hurdle-of-the-hair…I could then get started on details!  Oh, how I love the details!  Because of that fact, I will probably never be able to paint a more flowy-moving watercolor abstract figure….but I can see myself trying.



It’s good to step back and take the whole picture in.  I wanted to get each piece (horse body, jockey, head, saddle) to the same level of completion as I went along.  Which is a little different for me, because I’ve been known to compartmentalize those sections.



I do like shadows, and I like folds!  As you can see, because the folds kept getting deeper.



After this picture was taken, I realized how little color the jockey has in his face.  I added more blush tones to his cheeks and lips.



If I were really good, I would do backgrounds with these beautiful animals….but I have zero confidence in my ability to paint decent backgrounds.  Hopefully I’ll level-up and do a background soon.



This is about as good as he’s gonna get…So  he’s off to the frame shop and the printer.  I’m going to see what this will look like printed out on watercolor poster paper.

Thoroughbred….Folds

This is where I left off from the last post.  Just getting started on the folds in the five saddle 
sash….(whatever it’s called!  Haha)



And working the cylinder of the boots and the folds of the pants.



If I remember correctly from my last horse….I’ll be bringing in India Ink to get those blacks darker.  Watercolor is very translucent.  It gets pretty redundant to keep adding black watercolor on top of black watercolor and it still won’t get as dark as you think it should be.



I’ve gotta be careful here, because I have about 7 tubes of various blue watercolors, and some of them are on the more turquoise side.



The horse and jockey are coming together well, so far.  I tend to save the really hard parts for last, like the body of the horse.

Thoroughbred….Wash

All I can say is…. “it was time”.   Time to draw another beautiful race horse.  When my family came in town for some Kentucky Derby activities, I asked my son for my framed horse back for the occasion.  Since the framed horse is such a monster, It took up too much room in my previous home.  It measures 49 inches wide by 36 inches tall (framed).  I consider it my best piece to date.



It was 4 years ago that I completed that horse, and I’m curious if I can repeat the challenge of making another.  I’ve been doing much smaller, “en plein air” drawings and haven’t felt the push to do something this big in awhile.

NOTE: Crescent #114 watercolor illustration board 30 x 40

First things first!  Get that wash down.



Then I started drawing with WATERCOLOR pencils.  There is a lot of play and adaptation with watercolor pencils versus straight brush work.    Good for us more realistic drawers/ painters.  I will bring out the Faber-castell regular colored pencils later, when it’s time for the finer detail work.



That stippling you see, will be smoothed out by applying water with a paintbrush. Gotta be careful here, cuz too much water will play havoc.

Horse Racing….Place

Started in on the pant folds….I always forget how to draw them until I stumble around a bit.



I’ll need to go in and darken the pants/folds on the bottom part of the leg to make it more realistic.



I had to bring in shadows/ contour so I blended a little red and blue into my light brown paint.  The cool thing about painting is blending!!  I didn’t need to buy a new tube of darker brown….I could just blend and make do.



The nice thing about watercolor is that some of the pigment can be removed.  The helmet was too soft looking and when the pigment was evened out it looked much better.

Horse Race….Show

Being inundated with Horse Racing activities these past couple of weeks it seemed perfectly natural to sketch a horse next.



Got my outline down…..then grabbed my watercolor paint mess to put a light color base down.



…..Yea, Yea….I know I said I don’t draw animals…but since their hair is so short, it’s almost like sketching skin.  Plus….I get to draw one of those colorful jockeys too



I learned something new this year.  Every horse in a given position always wears the same color…..red #1…..green #5…..orange#7…..etc.  As you can tell, I am out of my element.



Just playing with those folds…..



The neat thing about sketching from a picture….is the ability change colors.  I’ll be making this horse a light brown instead of dark brown…Go Baby Go!