Here is the finished item! The horses are all very different and the owner was delighted. As you can see, in this final painting all the finer detailling is added. Constantly checking back and forward from the different reference photographs that every fine detail of light, shadow, vein and hair is correct. Well thankfully that is another one done and I can look forward to the next.

I will be demonstrating a horse portrait and palette knife work at Fair Oak art group on 7th January . 7pm - 9pm. So come along if you can make it!


Then for January and February I have a healthy mix of dogs horses and foals to keep me busy.

All for me to say is come back soon and catch up on the progress on the easel and a Happy New Year to you all!

Here you can see the grey mare is much larger now, correct to her relation with the foal and brood mare! Thank goodness for the way I have learnt to work by only underpainting them all in first to ensure it looks right! As you can see I have along way to go on the grey , but have put more detail in with the mare and foal as I was pleased with the way they were going. All along thoughout my painting I am sending these to the owner and we are discussing things as we go along. I prefer to paint like this as it ensures the owner is happy with all the stages of the painting .

As I continued to work on the other two (foal and other mare) I began to realise that by just putting on the base colours was showing me that the scale of the grey mare was out! This entailed completely wiping her out and starting the drawing again. Basically she looked to small, looking at the mo like a pony and not a horse at all. In the next painting you will see how she is redone to a larger more acurate size!

As you can see the next stage basically comprises of getting the underpainting of the first mare on. Her chestnut colouring takes a few layers so I was keen to get that on. Also it helps to see if the background colour needs altering and the general composition begins to come to life and show up anything that needs tweeking!

Ok sorry, with sick children and christmas Ididnt get as far as blogging in December!

:(

I will however say we had a great Christmas eventually and it again seems over so quickly!

Back to work on Monday I am already planning out my next 2 months commissions list.

As promised however I will show the work in progress of one of my larger commissions for 2008.

It was received very well by the horses owners and hopefully some word of mouth recommendations will be coming of it. The best type of advertising ever I am sure you will agree.