Blue and gold horse #2 - Acrylic painting

I enjoy learning about pigments and their origin. Currently I am reading the book Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay, and have fallen in love again with lapis lazuli. That's why, even though I have run out of Ultramarine, I could not resist painting one more blue and gold horse.

Blue and gold horse #2 - Acrylic on canvas (30x24in)

I used another rough textured canvas, this time I achieved the texture by pressing and lifting a big plate flat against the canvas while the gesso was still wet. This made random pointy peaks and wide round valleys. Using modeling paste I sculpted the horse shape. The gesso and the modeling paste each took a couple of days to dry as they were applied thick. Once dry I painted the first layer of blues and whites in the background and covered the horse shape in gold, making sure I painted the dips. For the second layer I used exclusively painting knifes. A huge paint knife first for the background streaks of dark anthraquinone blue, cobalt and titanium. A medium paint knife for the horse body, and a smaller one for the mane and tail. I had to do three layers waiting for each one to dry first to make sure the contrast and shapes were exactly what I wanted. You cannot overwork the paint knife or else  you lose the lights and darks as they start mixing towards a medium valued blue. That is why after the first paint knife application I waited for that layer to dry before correcting any areas, if I wanted to preserve the high contrast.