Here we are with the sky done. I like to put clouds in most paintings to give a sense of movement and interest. I also blocked in the forest in the background, leaving the trees along the ridge. In the hilly ridge, I tried to echo some of the shapes of the horses' backs and necks to keep the design strong and to keep the eye moving through the whole painting.I decided to start with the buckskins for no other reason than that I wanted to. Here, they are about 90 % done, and I've moved on to block in the other horses and some of the grassy patches so the legs don't get lost. To this point, I'd spent 5 days drawing and 2 days painting. This image,by the way, is 16 x 20.
During the next week, I worked on each horse, went back to polish the buckskins, and finally worked on the background. Sometimes I block in all the grass and trees before I do the main subject, but in this case, I felt all those legs needed to be done before I started laying in much background colour.
For me, doing a painting is about going back, and back, and back until I feel satisfied with my work.
