How to paint a horse with watercolors
Supplies:
pan watercolors (I used Aqua-mini Sennelier)
watercolor pencils (I used Art Grip Aquarelle, pink, light brown, dark brown, black)
cup of water
watercolor brushes
paper towels
watercolor paper
hairdryer
***Note - my watercolors are professional grade. You can make beautiful paintings with student grade also - the main difference is that there is more pigment present in professional grade. I used student grade watercolor paper.
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First find a good photo (photo by Vallory Moss) |
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Next use a pencil to lightly draw your horse. Do a water wash along the background and add a small amount of background color. Use your black and dark brown watercolor pencils to draw in the darkest parts of your painting. |
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Now use lighter color watercolor pencils to put in more colors. |
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Now use water on a brush to blend areas - start with the areas that are furthest away. I also used water in some of the darkest areas. Then I used a hairdryer to dry everything. |
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Notice inside the ear - a spot had a lot of water and didn't want to dry. |
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Not a problem - just blot it off! I will darken it later when I use pan colors. |
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Now I use water and blend the remaining watercolor pencil. Time for the hairdryer again! If in doubt, always dry everything before going on to the next step. |
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Now dig into those pan watercolors! Start with darks again - add in shadows on the body, shadows on the head. Don't be afraid to be a bit splotchy. Notice under the eye here - it is very blotchy with rough edges - do not try to be perfect! See the ears? Dark blotches where the shadows are - don't worry, they'll look fine in the end. |
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Now we are starting to deal with the mane. This horse has a light mane - there are several ways to deal with this. I chose here to use darker brown highlighted with yellow. Remember to balance your colors. If I use yellow in the mane, it nees to be elsewhere also, so choose some places to highlight on the rest of the horse. |
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I used a fine brush to add the mane. |
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Add in shadows along the neck and behind the head to bring that head forward. Add in more mane. Don't overwork - you'll get a muddy painting. Also ***dry your painting in between steps! I painted in the black shadows, dried the painting, then added the remainder of the mane. |