Welcome back to the painting diary. What a weekend I have just had - my first visit to Ireland for my debut as a jousting knight. After all those months of training I now know I can do it and the comments from everyone else in Destrier were very encouraging - thanks for your support.

As yet I don't have any photos of the joust itself, but the picture on the right shows me in full armour on Merlin - one of the fantastic horses supplied by Stable Stars. I am jousting again this weekend and my father will be there, armed with his cameras, so all being well I'll be able to add some action shots to the site next week.

Back to the painting. It has been a short week at the easel as we didn't get home until midnight on Monday and there has been quite a bit of sorting out to attend to before we head off to the next joust on Friday. However, I have been able to get a couple of days work done, concentrating on the horse and the background to the right. The pavilion is now taking shape and the yellow is nowhere near as obvious now. When I'm completely happy with this I can add the embroidered Golden Trees that are described by de la Marche.

Click image to enlarge

I have also started to indicate the mantling that is flowing from the 'Bastard's' helm, and while I want it to be clear what it is, I also want to try to retain plenty of movement as it flaps around behind his head.There is still a lot of refining to do to the horse but having built up the tones on it's head, this part of the painting is also taking shape quite nicely. I am beginning to achieve the lighting effect that I want, with strong highlights defining the shapes as they are lit from the right and slightly behind.

Although I am really looking forward to this weekend's joust, I am also keen to progress with the painting now. The next couple of weeks are fairly clear of other commitments (apart from a 'landmark' birthday for me), so I should be able to really crack on with the painting as of Monday.

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