Experimenting with an Appaloosa’s spots

The subject of this painting is a “leopard” Appaloosa with an amazing array of spots over its entire body. Painting the form of the horse was pretty easy, but those spots are something else! While the urge was strong to just dive in and start painting blotches, I didn’t want to mess up a good start. So, I pulled out the patience and a piece of scrap paper and began to experiment with different options. And wow, am I glad I did!

My initial thought was to use a dark, sedimentary color like Hematite or Sepia. Nope, both turned too brown. Surprisingly, Van Dyck Brown (VDB) mixed with French Ultramarine into a deep, rich dark that didn’t leave a brown edge. Payne’s Blue Gray (PBG) came into the mix, along with Cobalt Blue. Verditer Blue and Lunar Blue were tried and rejected, but Burnt Sienna made the cut.

Along with color, technique was a big part of the puzzle. Different attempts at wet-into-wet, wet-into-dry, spattering, and blurring edges all got a tryout.

In the end, I’ll use Cobalt and Burnt Sienna as a gray base, with VDB dropped in and French Ultramarine lightly splattered, then lifted for a random splotch. When nearly dry, VDB, PBG, French Ultramarine and a touch of Green Apatite Genuine will form the dark central spot. (The green will echo colors in the background.) Some of the edges will get pulled or blurred to add variety.

This was a great lesson in experimenting with materials before going straight to the painting. I definitely would have been unhappy with the results of the first 10 options, and probably would have given up on the painting in frustration!