This term we are looking at basic shapes in art and we have started with spiral shapes, the first being a Markhor goat with majestic spiral horns. I referred the class back to our lesson on mixing our own greys. When using watercolours always keep old palettes: they made a perfect vehicle for mixing a set of your own tertiary colours, greys and browns which occur naturally in granites and animal furs.

Make an initial drawing of the goat – spirals are like drawing curls on leaves, where two lines cross at one or more points. Keep the pencil pressure light. Start painting the horns first, the features and then the coat. Use wet on wet and retain some white of paper. This takes some time to complete. The background: wet on wet to start and then work in glazes – wet over dry paint. I used watercolour pencil and soluble pen to emphasize the layers of rock: this takes some time. The whole exercise will take you around three hours to complete.