Horse Racing Painting – Light & Shadow
Posted By Carrie L. Lewis on September 22, 2009
The finished drawing has been transferred to Rising Stonehenge paper after a careful review and a little bit of tweaking.
The technique I use for colored pencil work is a variation of the Flemish technique described in my Classical paintings blog. Paintings go through an under painting stage and a color stage.
The primary difference is that I do an umber layer, then a dead layer with oil paintings while colored pencils have only an umber layer and I use only one or two colors and white.
The two colors are Light/Raw Umber and Dark Umber. Light/Raw Umber is the most frequent choice because I want the under painting to be fairly light in value. But on subjects that are darker or that feature dark areas, I use Dark Umber.
Most of the time, I used Prismacolor Verithin pencils at this stage because they are harder and hold a point longer. I can lay down sufficient color to create the value range without filling up the tooth of the paper. When doing multiple layers, that is important.
At this stage (photo at left), I’ve worked on the under painting for two days.
The first work I did was placing whites in the lightest areas. The horse’s blaze, the numbers on the bridle board, the jockey’s cap and the saddle cloth and the jockey’s pants all received attention. I used a Prismacolor Thick Lead white, but used very light pressure and let the color fade into the shadow areas.
The focus of the first few sessions in the umber under painting, though. Beginning with the darker areas of cast shadow around the flaps of the saddle cloth, under the rein and in other areas, I used Verithin Dark Umber and extremely light pressure (1 or less on a scale of 1 to 10) and applied color in even layers.
Work is slow at this stage. I want to develop lights and darks as completely as possible and I want to avoid getting too dark too quickly. Slow and steady wins this particular race. It’s also a lot easier to think first and put color down second than it is to lift color after putting it in the wrong place!
The umber layer was completed on September 21. On to the color!
For indepth updates on this and other paintings featured on this blog, check out the Demonstrations page.
I am a self-taught artist for the most part. Lots of trial and error in the past forty years! Formal art training consists of a couple of years of high school art, a painting class at a community college, one semester in the Fine Arts program at Abilene Christian University and a couple of local workshops.
I am always looking for ways to better my artistic skills, so I am a permanent student in the School of Trial and Error. I love reading and have been known to spend hours online researching materials and techniques. As a result, I've painted in several different styles, including the direct method (which goes straight for the color) and Classical methods (which involves underpaintings, layering and glazing).
I have exhibited paintings in locations such as Lone Star Park Race Track, Grand Prairie, Texas and Remington Park Race Track, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Since the early 90s, I've worked with the Michigan Harness Horseman's Association, donating custom portraits to their annual benefit auction.
In the course of maintaining a growing art business, I have taught myself web design (a skill that will no doubt prove to be a continual learning experience).
I also enjoy puttering around the yard, chasing trains with my husband, Neal, travel and, of course, looking at horses whenever they appear on my horizon.
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