Two drafts and a commission

Spent about 3 l-o-n-g days drawing all the harness detail on this pair of drafts that I photographed way back when at one of the Harvard Milk Days horse shows. The photo had been sitting in a file folder for quite some time, probably because I never felt quite up to tackling all that harness. After I reconfigured one of my booth display racks to make room for the rectangular painting of Billy and his harem, I decided I needed another rectangular painting for the other rack. Symmetry, or something like that, right? So as I was sorting through my files, I knew right away that this one would be perfect.

 

In the meantime, a commission came in, for a very cute horse with a lot of personality named Fred. So I may well be painting the drafts in between sessions with the commission. Good thing my painting style requires several periods of “drying time”–that should give me the chance to work on this one at the same time. More on Fred after I get started on his portrait.