My panel for the Le Cadeau du Cheval Mural is coming along nicely. I'll post two installments here...I'm working pretty quickly on this, and I didn't have a chance to post a new blog entry in between, so you can see the early stage of the painting and how it has progressed. The first image, I have included an image of the original panel next to it, so that you can squint your eyes at the image and see how the shapes and the tones fit into the original. This has been an extreme challenge. The only horse I have a decent reference for is the big bucskin in the middle. The others are pretty much made-up out of my head.
In this latest installment, I've refined the anatomy of the horses a bit more. The ear on the grey looks a little small to me, so I'll probably adjust that. I've used the forelocks and manes of the two middle horses to create the dark lines in the composition. This is a departure from my usual work in which I'm concerned with strong light and shadows. With no strong light source, the horses are looking a bit flat, but I can't get too contrasty with the light, or I'll lose the original overall shape.
The mural page has had a few new pieces added. Check out the progress here: http://www.muralmosaic.com/Cadeau.html
