Susan's Horses Rough

Here is Susan's preliminary study of wild horses. She'll be changing the compostion to a more horizontal and painting it 11x17. She's included the photo reference. She'll be adding a horse back in to the composition.

I really like the greener color Susan made the grasses. I also like the engagement of the horses with the viewer. The warm and cool colors in the horses is nice too. Maybe this can be pushed a little further even though typically in these subdued lighting conditions those color differences aren't are prominent. As the rest of the color is keyed up, it works as she's done it.

I've done a few Photoshop notes to consider. First, I didn't make many notes on the horses because these were quickly done and I know Susan will do a great job in the final piece.

1. I noticed in the photo that the brush extended to the foot of the hills. The grasses do appear more purplish but I might flavor the green grass color with the violet/blue. This greys it a bit as the plane receeds. Notice how I've indicated that the scale of the marks should diminish the further from the viewer the stuff is.

2. It feels currently as if there are three stripes of nearly equal size and intensity in the top half of the background. Unifying the grass plane helps to mitigate that. The relationship between the mountain and the sky could be refined a tad as well. The hills are a nice cool blue/grey and the sky is a warmer chromatic grey. I chose a value between the darker blu of the mountain and the lighter snow color. I also knocked the darkest values in the mountain down a little to push it back  some more. Susan can play with the greys. When you click on the retouched version you should able to see that I created the grey sky using several colors. The colors can of course be brighter than I've indicated here but remember the relative relationships.

3. Just keep in mind the angles, of the heads most importantly.

4. Keep an eye on the colt's head relative to that of the adult horses. It may be a little big here.

5. I like the rhythms of the grasses in the foreground as Susan has painted them. I might however, consider seeing more of the legs of the horses in a few places. The exposure of the legs may not be equal as the grass length varies.

6. A note just to keep in mind the distance between the legs of the horses.

I can't wait to see Susan's final painting.