A Horsey Commission ... or ... a Work in Progress

I was recently asked by a woman in Washington if I could do a horse/rider painting as a gift.  This is my drawing ...

I have also done a color work-up, so I won't run into trouble later in the painting. 

The painting is larger than I have been doing lately - 16 x 21 inches.
Here, I've masked out a thick outline of the horse and rider, and done several background washes of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone. 

The background is largely completed, so I've removed the masking, and started applying thin glazes of quin. violet and indanthrone to indicate the shadows. From the photos, the horse appears to have a violet tint overall to his grey coat.

I think the shadows are done, and will now start working with the local colors.

I managed to get a lot done today. No riding - I feel so sorry for Bruno ... this past week he's had one injection in the neck to tranquilize him for dental work, a huge wasp sting in the neck the next day, an anti-viral injection two days after that [in the neck], and this morning he had bites all over that same area of his neck! All I can do is ice his neck and apply witch hazel. He seems to like both those treatments.

Thank you so much for dropping by!