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….Bridle

I left off around here from my last post.  I need to step back and take the drawing/watercolor in as I proceed.  Helps to see what needs to be done next.



The horse’s head, first I need to make sure the straps and buckles make sense before I apply the watercolor.



Then I put a light yellow wash down on all those straps.



Since I was in the vicinity…..I adjusted some of the snout pigment using all my browns and purple.  I’m always surprised at how versatile purple is!  It’s probably   my favorite underlying color. 



This ring was bugging me, so I got out my circle stencil and adjusted the lines a bit.  But the problem coming up next…. is it’s a perspective circle….meaning it’s not straight on.  

Hopefully, I can just trick the eye here!  Haha.

Thoroughbred….Jockey

Mr. Jockey started off this way from the wash stage.



Went in for some mindless coloring….which shouldn’t be a problem, but all my reds seem to be too pink or too coral.  I have no plain-red!



I must’ve been feeling fearless, because I started in on the goggles.  So much color and reflection going on there…possibly I wasn’t so much fearless as the goggles are forgiving.



Started layering color in by brush for the face.  Then evened out the color in the helmet.



I’m surprised that with each piece I must re-learn how good these watercolor pencils are for bringing in contour and depth to sensitive areas, like the face.  I seem to forget.



He still has a lot of work ahead of him….or rather me!!  But I’m liking his look so far.

Horse Racing….Win

This has become for me the “Horse From Hell”!  Oops, can I say that on National TV  the web?  I only started this back in May.



The hand had to stay subtle.  I had to hold back from adding lots of detail.



I only water-colored and color pencil’d the horse’s body about 5 times.  Finally applied really dark brown watercolor by brush to really darken the area.  I think I was afraid of going too dark.



The picture has more shadows coming off of the body reflected on the green sash, but I just wasn’t seeing those too well, so I didn’t deepen the shadows.



I think I get why painting is so popular.  The beauty of watercolor painting is this, as I touch up all these little areas with so many different browns, I can keep holding onto the same brush, I don’t have to stop and grab a different colored pencil.  What a time saver.



Inspiration picture taken by me last year at Churchill Downs.



This turned out o.k. I think it’s even frame worthy.  Now that’ll cost a buck or two!

My daughter thinks it needs a background…but I say I’m trying to imitate Norman Rockwell!!  Haha

Horse Racing….Place….Head

Well, it’s pretty slow going around here with this Color-Sketch.  But with the small tidbits of time that I could draw, I focused on the head last week.



These views help me the most, my “tree-view” expands to the “forest-view”.



I bounced between watercolor pencils and colored pencils a lot in the straps.



He’s getting there……The mane on this guy will either make him or break him!!

Horse Racing….Place…Still

I evened out the horse color with a larger brush and a darker brown.  Which now means I have to “replace” the shadow lines.



Being super frustrated with my inability to draw the horses body consistently, I had to concentrate on something else.  I will need to go in and make the eye area more pronounced.  Glad this part came easier.



I love working in my kitchen….It gets lots of sun….all…day…long.  Natural light is always the best!



This is pretty much the standard look when I work…..the hard part is grabbing the correct pencil.  I’m surrounded by dozens of watercolor pencils mixed with even more regular colored pencils.  And there is a purpose to each.  At this point, when I’m doing more of the detail work…guess which pencil I grab?  Yep, the regular colored pencil one.



Now for the game……Can you spot the differences between the two pictures?

Horse Racing….Place2

Worked the shading in more….just trying to show pant creases in a somewhat realistic fashion.



Since I’ve never paid much attention to the jockeys goggles, I just tried to make sense of all those black straps.



Gave the guy an ear, too.



Worked the knotted strap…which I have no idea what it’s used for.



This horse is a BEAST, so I stepped away from painting that portion.  His body is quite large and I’m trying to color it consistently……but I’m getting frustrated with the streakiness of this medium.

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….Show2

It’s always best for me to draw whatever is in the same color family together.  After I finished the green Horse Saddle liner, I moved up to the green arm band.  All in colored pencil.



Not quite done with the arm band…but was ready to tackle that top.  I just wasn’t feelin’ it for colored pencils for the top….but what I was feelin’ was watercolor pencils.  I love the vibrancy of my pink watercolor out of the tube.  Got a little carried away with applying it to the arm folds. Then backed off for the shoulder and back sketching.



I’m going to have to go in and extract a lot of that color on the right side of the goggle straps because I’ve made it appear that the helmet is soft, which it isn’t.



I picked up a new trick in class…..it’s to apply that watercolor vibrant pink in little dabs.  I like it that way.  Next I’ll be dabbing in vibrant blue.



I cannot wait to get started on the jockey’s white pants…..For some reason, drawing white clothes is fun….who knew?