continuing on with "nevado the appaloosa"

today i first returned to finishing the front legs with a mixed wash of cobalt blue and burnt umber/sienna applied with a #12 round brush. the lower part of the leg is white(ish) so i defined them by applying a loose negative-shape wash of brown madder with some splashes of cobalt blue (and at times quinacridone gold) being careful to keep the general direction of these spatters horizontal. i then moved to the rear end and modeled the shadows with a gray wash of cerulean blue, yellow ocher, and carmine. as usual, i charged in a bit of color/warmth/coolness after it was applied to lend some variety.

next steps on "nevado...."

this done i needed to figure out how i was going to paint the splotches of color on his rump. i decided to use a spray bottle and put down some "dots" of various sizes of clear water near the border of the brown and white. then i just touched the tip of the brush charged with paint around the border. i got the effect that you see here and i think it does what i wanted. so i softened the lower edge and moved on to the rear legs and tail. again the same colors as the rest of the horse up to this point. his rump being white, i described some of the rear end by the darker foliage behind and made that a negative shape to define the curve. by this time i had more or less decided that the background is going to be a collection of loose rectangles formed by the fence railings and posts against the foliage. with that in mind i started adding them with a varied wash of quinacridone gold, mineral violet and brown madder. i think there is a little cobalt in there where i thought it was getting a little too warm. it started looking to me like his trunk was a little too stout but i carefully measured the proportions from both the reference photo and from him (just steps away from the porch where i was painting) and decided it wasn't off by much...maybe an 1/8 to a 1/4 of and inch. i can easily change that when i paint it, assuming i remember! i still haven't decided how to render the railings and posts but i think at this point that a mixture of positive and negative shapes might work best. we'll see. that's all for right now.