I completed my first equestrian piece! Yay! It was a very slow process getting this one right as there were a lot of tiny details to pay attention to. So let me walk you through it! Step 1 - The Sketch The reference photo was a standard sized hard copy photo, which I had to scan and then enlarge about ten times! A lot of detail was lost but the general outline was good. Of course.. I've traced it. I knew as soon as I first saw it that I did not stand a chance against it! Despite the fact that I traced it.. the riders face is awful and looks nothing like her. Joy. I am really nervous about it! How am I going to pull this one off? (Thankfully the scan retained pretty much all of the detail on the laptop screen, so there is a chance of success!) Ok so I've made a start. The photo is a bit bright I'm afraid. It probably took about 5 hours of work just to get this far (that is incredibly slow for me!) You will notice that the rider is white as a sheet! This is due to the fact that it is the first layer of her face and I am still trying to get her features right. That in itself is going to take a while, but part from struggling with the riders face I am reasonably happy with how it is going so far. I love how the horse and tack are turning out, and I'm enjoying the lighting and shadows, but I am still struggling with the riders face! Studio shot! (Pencils and pastels everywhere as standard!) Imagine's face is more or less complete (minus finishing touches) - he is such a pretty boy! So the difficult bit is done.. I just need to go back over and sharpen details, add finishing touches etc. But something about the riders face is still not sitting right with me and it is stressing me out! It is definitely going to need a lot more attention! The riders face is driving me absolutely nuts so I've taken a photo and put it alongside the reference photo on my laptop screen, zooming in as much as I can without killing the details. You can see how off the first photo is compared with the second photo. There must have been 8 or so photos in between these two where I kept comparing in this safe way until I got it as close as I could. It is still not absolutely perfect, but it looks a lot like her, so I am happy. (The riders whole head measures about a square inch so the details on her face are absolutely tiny and very hard to get spot on!) Here are both their faces together, completed. I have added Imagine's whiskers (so cute on horses!) and added some more tiny details to his tack. One thing I loved about the photo was the pure joy caught in each of their expressions and the connection they share. I was determined to capture that in the drawing, and I feel like I achieved it. Such a great feeling! Finished!! I am SO happy with it! The client loves it too so my first equestrian piece has been a great success. I am really hoping that this will be the start of many equestrian pieces. It's one thing to create a portrait of a persons much-loved horse but to create a portrait of them doing what they love with their much-loved horse is perhaps even more special. (See reference photo below for comparison.) ![]()
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