2022 Direct Watercolour Challenge - number 6

 

Number 6 - Horse Race

After the success of the last painting - my direct watercolour of Margam Castle, I decide to go for another where I paint the whole scene rather than just the main detail. In the last year's challenge I might well have just painted the lead horse and the jockey. The way that I did this was to pain the green field, and the blue sky first, covering the whole length of the paper. This has it's benefits and also its drawbacks as well. The benefits are that I really like the evenness of the texture of the sky. The drawback is that it means you're painting the details of the horses and jockeys on top of the blue sky. It's difficult to make the colours really pop. Nonetheless, I'm really pleased with the way it's come out. There's something about horse racing which I find very appealing as a subject to paint. I never watch horse racing, and don't even bet on the Grand National every year like I used to. But as a subject for painting, I love it.