Nearly every city that attracts tourists has a fleet of horse-drawn carriages ready to provide a relaxed way to see the sights. The visual rhythm of the horses' legs suggests the staccato of hooves on bricks; the silhouettes tell the story.
Published in "Splash 18: The Best of Watercolor" 2017
My phone camera captured this lively scene while I was traipsing around the inspiring city of Vienna, Austria. Because of the backlighting, the silhouettes tell the story with minimal detail. My Big Idea was to portray the visual rhythm of the horses' legs suggesting the staccato of hooves on bricks. Hard edges and sharp value contrasts support that theme.
Because this is a poured painting, value was paramount from the beginning of the design process. Working from light to dark, I poured each value as a separate layer. In order to direct the viewer’s eye, the highest value contrast is the area of the horses’ legs, with the darkest dark against the white of the paper. I was careful to leave a space with minimal value contrast on the left so that the trotting horses had room to move forward.
The way I pour paint, color is really secondary to value; however I was pleased to have achieved a brick color for the foreground. At the end of the painting process I adjusted the values and added detail to the drapery in the background using a brush.
