Bordeaux Horse Fountain Painting

My husband got his own office a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I would make him a painting for the walls.  We took a trip together back in 2004 to Bordeaux and Paris, France.  There was an amazing statue in Bordeaux of horses/seacreatures.  I have always wanted to paint something from the photos we took.  So I figured this would be a good subject for his office, especially since he works for a French company.  And horses are much more manly than butterflies!

Here is the initial sketch with the background blocked in and details started.

And here it is with a bit more detail painted in.

I decided to change the angle of the legs.  The photo I am working from cut off the legs, so it is tricky getting the correct angle worked out from other photos.

I love how the hair is coming along.  I am going to change up the angle of the neck.  I think it is too narrow.  The head seems out of proportion somehow.  So I am going to fiddle with it some also.  And I am going to thicken up the leg muscles, they are really bulging in the statue photos.

I made some subtle changes.  Mostly in the face and legs.  I like it much better now.  I love the lines in the hair.  And the colors are looking good too.  I may add some washes of color here and there.  My 8 year old says it looks "really cool".  So far so good.

There are splashes of water in the photo and the fountain has water shooting out of the horse's nostrils.  I think I might add that after I finish.  I don't want it to detract from the finished look though.

 Here is the completed painting.  I added some rough patches with a palette knife to give it the aged metal look and deepened some of the shadows.  I also added splashes of white at the bottom to indicate water from the fountain.  I really like how it turned out.