“By the Lake” Finished Painting

It’s finished! It’s done! Yeah! Sorry, I got a little excited there. I also have it listed on Ebay now, so just click on the picture!

"By the Lake"

Anyway, here he is. A young mini pinto horse standing on the shore of a lake. Beautifull green, spring grass and little white and yellow flowers are sprouting up all around. The mountains are starting to lose thier snow  to the warmer weather, and the lake gives off a beautifull, clear reflection of the mountains and the sky.

So after the last underpainting in my last post, I started on the mane and tail. I just can’t save those to the very last because it always makes me feel so much better once I get them in. It just makes the horse look more finished and gives me the courage to go on… LOL  So I laid in the mane and tail roughly and then started finishing the body up. I changed his color to more of a red and then did some more highlights in the light areas where the sun hits and then darkened up the darker areas. Next I cleaned up the edges and then finished up the mane and tail with some lights and darks. Then I worked on the grass starting by the lake with some lighter colored grass and then adding some darker grass and alternating between light and dark leaving it a little darker up around and in front of the horse using a combination of Hookers Green and Titanium white. Add some little dots of flowers using white and yellow and the foreground is done! And last but definately not least, I touched up the eye and mouth area, darkened a little around the eye and mouth and added that little twinkle in his eye.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this painting. I would have liked to show a few more of the in between steps, but these little paintings go so quick and it was late at night so I was only able to scan it twice last night. (didn’t want to wake the hubby while he’s trying to sleep since our computer is in our bedroom    Next time I’ll try to show a few more in between steps.