Another Process or ... Why Did I Say I'd Do It?

Original pic, "doctored" for best contrast

My sketch

Several washes - aureolin, burnt orange, carmine, indanthrone

Some preliminary shadowing of horse with alizarin crimson + phthalo green

Building up horse with bt. orange, purple and dk. blue

More horse detail, + start on woman

More horse depth; woman looks a bit washed out

Looking better, but both need MORE depth, + somehow must fix horse's ear

   I have an older, sweet/crusty [meant only with fondness] patient in one of the offices in which I work. We developed a bit of a rapport at the first appointment, and now email to each other - interesting stories, jokes, that sort of thing. M. knows I paint, and recently asked if I could do a watercolor of a friend of his, for him to give as a gift. The picture he sent really wasn't suitable , so I googled her name, and amazingly found another photo. It's not a good photo for reference, but I played with it a bit, got a decent sketch, and set to work. It's going s...l...o...w...l...y, I suppose because I'd like to have a better reference, but I'm muddling along.