"Fourty-two Cowboy Hats" - Rodeo Watercolor

[UnRuli]

Here is the latest of my travel pieces.  This watercolor was done using reference from several photos and video from a visit to the rodeo at the Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas.

The final size is 21 1/2" x 15 1/2" on 400lb Arches Cold Press.  As always I timed my progress, but I timed the FIRST attempt.  I was 70 hours in to the painting when disaster struck!  I only had to push back the crowd in the background with a wash of dark watercolor and paint in the ground plane in the foreground when I dumped the ENTIRE pan of dark watercolor wash on to my painting!  I was DEVASTATED!  I only had two weeks before I needed to turn this painting in (one of those weeks was my first week of the summer at grad school and I knew I'd have little spare time to work on it) and not enough time to complete it, but I buckled down and did it!  The second time around I didn't take the time to keep track of my time, but I did decide to count the number of cowboy hats I had to paint.......fourty-two!  It's not TRULY finished, but it was finished enough for critique.  When I get time later I'll go ahead and finish it (just a few details here and there need to be fixed.

I wish I hadn't added the clown on the bottom right......it worked until I painted in the ground plane and then it looked wrong.  That's alright......I can always repaint the entire thing another time......ha, who am I kidding!  Twice is enough!



Details of my favorite area:


and even though I think this clown should have been left out I still think it's one of the better areas I completed:

[chibilightangel]

Wow!!! That is a beautiful piece! I can't believe how much detail you put into all of the foreground characters and even how much detail I can quickly pick out of the background. Congrats on a lovely piece.

[rebecnik]

These are just gorgeous! I used to paint, but I could never do anything to this caliber. Well done!

[Homerof2]

WOW, your work is just amazing - I knew I had to make you a buddy so I never missed even one of your projects.

I think the clown is perfect, after all, you can't have a bull rider without the clown.

Adding this to my Pinterest 'Art I Like' Board.

[lylacfey]

OMG! That is beautiful. I love Rodeo's and have gone to them since I was a child. You captured the beauty and spirit of the Rodeo. I think the clown set off the whole piece. A rodeo is not a rodeo without the clown out in the arena. I love all the cowboys. You really captured their personality.

My heart went out to you about the paint disaster. I think that would have killed my mojo for the piece. I admire you for tackling it again and getting it done on a deadline.

[FoxyBlue]

Once again...your work is UNREAL! Well...so real it's unreal. You really are amazing. I so admire your detail and artistry. AMazing work. I would have to say 'this rocks'.

[kittykill]

That is absolutely breathtaking! It so captures the rodeo. I am blown away. Just wonderful!

[calluna]

Amazing...You've got those tiny details so well. I can't stop thinking how much I'd love this to be a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle (and your other travel artwork, too).

I prefer with-clown over without-clown (and I will never repeat that statement in any other context, ever again!  ) Even though one's eye is drawn down to the clown, it promptly gets sent back up to the bull because that's where he's looking. So I think it helps frame the subject, and put that lower corner to use in pulling the attention back to where it's supposed to be, rather than it just being a big open space next to a big crowded space.

[alwaysinmyroom]

Such details in watercolor really takes a lot of restraint!  I had to look more than once to be sure it was watercolor...becaus e it is fabulous!

Your hard work and need for completing each detail makes this piece and the story wonderful!

I love the rodeo clown...it completes the picture for me...

[UnRuli]

Thank you everyone for being so kind!  It's funny how I prefer to work so detailed in watercolor and that is probably due to the fact that I'm still so new to it.  Allowing the watercolor to "do it's thing" is tough for me so I tend to work on images that are VERY intensely detailed so that the shapes I'm painting are small.  I'm sure I'll eventually be able to loosen up a little, but for now this appears to be my own "style" of working in watercolor.  Strangely enough, my oils are less detailed and much more "brushy" in style. 

I'm in the middle of completing a painting that I have VERY short time to finish, but as soon as I get a chance I have some other pieces I'll post.

Again, thank you for the compliments!!