The Horse's Ass

This is a recent watercolor commission painted on 140lb cold press watercolor paper. I rarely (never) stretch my paper. This entire image was painted wet (sometimes VERY WET) on dry (meaning the dry watercolor paper). I started by laying down a medium toned color of cool blue, a touch of green and brown. I used a large round sable brush. Every time, before I dip my brush into color, I dip it into clean water and shake off the excess so that it is saturated but not dripping flooded. After the preliminary cool colors dried, I laid down another glaze of dark- toned horse colors letting them all intermingle wet-on-wet. I also tilted my drafting board about forty five degree, so that after I applied the paint, the washes would RUN (see the horse's ass). Now this is what watercolor painting is all about! This is taking advantage of the transparent fluid nature of the medium. Note in the third photo (click on it to enlarge) how the color I applied around the hoof is running down into the STILL WET cast shadow area on the ground. In the forth image, you can see how I was still working on the rider after having applied some energetic splatter work on the ground. The last photo is the watercolor completed. Notice the minimal amount of hard edges and dry looking paint...it's WET! For me, a watercolor painting must have a modicum of wet looking passages (a condition where the different color pigments can freely move about and intermingle). Isn't that why we define watercolor painting as CONTROLLING THE FLOOD?!