Equine Portrait - Two Horses by Cherry Blossom Trees
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![Two Horses Portrait Detail](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/525b1e82e4b0ac69ea663022/t/564f3493e4b01b73fde83f72/1448031380487/two-horses-portrait-detail.jpg?format=1000w)
Two Horses Portrait Detail
Every now and then I receive a commission, where I wish I had all the time in the world to tweak and tweak until I am left sitting in front of the easel unable to find anything else I could possibly do. Alas, this is commission had a deadline attached to it and I had no choice but to do the best I could within a very limited time.
![Equine Portraits from Reference Photos](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/525b1e82e4b0ac69ea663022/t/564f3528e4b00d3306bb79fe/1448031529089/equine-portraits-by-nc.jpg?format=1000w)
Equine Portraits from Reference Photos
This time I had two different reference photos that needed to be combined in one painting. Of course the angles were all difference and for the longest time I kept overlaying the two horses trying to figure out why both their heads were the same size, yet one was much shorter than the other. Using rules of perspective I figured I place the smaller horse higher up in the landscape with a slight tilt forward towards the other horse. Then there was the issue of brown on brown and thats were I had to figure out what color to compliment the browns with to get some definition going.
![Dark Brown Horse Head Detail](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/525b1e82e4b0ac69ea663022/t/564f365ee4b0625ac18f4e87/1448031839734/dark-brown-horse-detail.jpg?format=1000w)
Dark Brown Horse Head Detail
I found the answer in the darker horse. There were glimmers of pink and mauve which I wanted to use to play up the facial features. Of course things have to repeat in a picture plane so thats how the blossoming cherry trees came about. The mauve does the job of light grays and make the blossoms recede in the picture plane. Although I could not resist adding tons of color dabs all over the place.
![Light Brown Horse Detail](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/525b1e82e4b0ac69ea663022/t/564f3744e4b01e432db27b66/1448032071030/light-brown-horse-detail.jpg?format=1000w)
Light Brown Horse Detail
Where one horse got mauves and darker tones of pink the other received high chroma pinks. This was a 16x20in canvas and it had a lot of detail work. The addition of the final varnish gave the entire painting the illusion of a sun drenched afternoon in a landscape.
![Two Horses and Cherry Blossom Trees](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/525b1e82e4b0ac69ea663022/t/564f3842e4b06abfbce05fb7/1448032324052/two-horses-and-cherry-blossom-trees.jpg?format=1000w)
Two Horses and Cherry Blossom Trees
I truly hope that the recipient will love this painting as much as I did creating it.