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.

Bathtime, or Patience Is a Virtue

   I've been working on two commissions lately, and should be starting a third this week. This portrait is to be a gift [if it turns out well] His name , his "barn name" anyway, is Duke. Duke is about 11 years old, and has had a very successful career as a jumper. He's BIG [17 hh.] and extremely personable. I'm painting him for his owner, Barb, who has given me several tactful and much-needed kicks in the ass about my art. Thank you, Barb.

Initial sketch

Mask on, and aureolin wash

More yellow, some carmine [I've not used it before]

More carmine, some indanthrone

Too purple; here painting is, after bath

A glaze of aureolin again

Some burnt orange

More burnt orange, and indanthrone

Masking off; starting to thinly glaze greys

   Duke is a beautiful grey, so to show off the depth and variation of  greys, I needed a dark background. So I started by masking out his head and neck, and doing wash after wash. At one point, I realized I had gone too purple. What to do? That's where the bath came in. I took off as much color as I could, dried it, and started again. I think the background has turned out very well, despite the bath. And now I'm playing with the greys; right now I'm using three mixtures - a warmer yellowed grey, a neutral silver grey, and a cool purple one. Here's the Duke, so far ...