Some alteration on the handlers position yesterday..and a lot more cursing my painting skills! A long way yet to go....

Still plugging away at Rare Malt

I have had a few hiccups with this, i have put the first layer on the face of the handler but need to colour her a bit now, she looks deathly pale! I am not a portrait painter and people are not my strong point! The photo of this looks odd as some parts are dry and dull and other shiny wet. Still plenty of layers on the horses head to go which will even it all up (ie darks on his muzzle) I am also altering the trees to the left to omit the crescent shape that has appeared!

more horsey

Trees and crowds!

A layer of thin paint has been applied with a fan brush for the trees and I have put in the crowd. I have done this quite detailed, but I am only doing this one layer, hoping that when the horse is complete it will sing out. I also want to signify the hustle and bustle (and all the colours!) which I love about the ref picture. The colour is bleached on the left hand side of the photo it is much more balanced in life!

It took me about 5 hours to do this much today EEK!

Rare Malt - Update

Spent a few hours on the first layers of glazing, which turned out to be less glazed and more fine detail, lol. I just cant help fiddling even in the early stages. ..... Still a loooong way to go though :)

The blue glaze is the first layer of sky, It looks a bit random at the moment but the tree foliage will cover a lot of it.

New oil painting

I spent about 8 hours on this yesterday but I am pleased to have done the grisaille underpainting in just one hit.

The peoples faces almost drove me to distraction, hence why they are more detailed than i had intended at this stage.

Looking forward to the colour glazes coming in now!

The horse is 'Rare Malt' a filly that ran her first race at Newmarket last Saturday. The jockey is Hayley Turner.