Valor goes to the gym

Had to do a little body sculpting on Valor! Roz decided his neck was too skinny–not “Saddlebred-y” enough–and I agreed with her. In his original photo I picked a moment in his canter stride when he was on the third beat of the canter, landing on one foreleg and pushing off from there. At this point in a horse’s stride the neck and head are often elevated and even pushed back a little, causing them to look a bit “giraffe-y”. His mane, which falls on the left side, also had not flipped up completely in the wind and so was covering part of his neck, making the skinny effect even more noticeable.

Fortunately in the huge pile of photos I took I had one of him in the hind leg push-off phase of the canter and he was arching his neck up and forward–and the head position was almost the same as in the first photo. Voilà! A much more “Saddlebred” looking neck.

This painting stage is where clients usually get panicky. Oh my God! What is with all those loud colors???!!! Not to worry, they’re just the underpainting. Will all be covered up a few layers later. Stay tuned–and, courage!!

First pass of color. Those of you curious to compare can look at the drawing in yesterday’s post.