Am I Permitted to Say I Like Them?

This was supposed to go at the bottom of the post, but ...

Life ... painting going well, riding not so much. I finally had a lesson, after a few months without. I thought we were doing well. I could afford to "show off" a bit. But as I've said before, horses always bring you back to ground, to reality. I had been riding him at too fast a rhythm. It's easier to ride, but not desirable. It does not allow nor encourage the horse to push off from the hind legs properly, and use the back well. Riding in a slower tempo, more powerfully, has the horse using its back so much more - if you look closely, you can see Bruno's back slowly vibrating. It is a STINKER to ride. Following Bruno's larger movement, translated to my body, has me moving all over the place. I look like the Energizer Bunny up there, arms and legs wubbling all over the place. What it means is I am going to have to get much stronger in my core. 

At least the painting is going well ...

"I Got Spots"
I have darkened the eye a bit, to bring more focus to the head, and I have added a ground by dry-brushing along the bottom. It looks finished, and I actually like it [and you all know I am hard to please with my paintings].

"Struttin'"
This one I have taken as far as I can take it without mucking up the feathers. I have done some direct glazing with a thin mixture of a dark brown to suggest form shadows - any more, and she will look like a very cross wet hen.


  As always, your comments are most welcome!

Struttin' to the Home Stretch - Swedish Flower Hen

I have masked the perimeter of the hen, and done three graded washes - two of aureolin and one of pink. 

I have done a graded wash of quin. burnt orange which wubbled a bit on the lower left because I didn't get to it quickly enough with the hair dryer. 

I've done another graded wash of the orange, let it dry, then covered the hen and done a splatter with a brown mixture.

I am now in the final FUSS stage. The shapes of the masked out areas are not great, but that's the nature of masking fluid. In the past, I have even tried using a sewing needle, but that doesn't work for me - too easy to scratch the paper.
To finish, I'll continue directly adding thin washes of a dark brown mix to add depth and shadows. And then I'll set her off to strut!

As always, your comments are most welcome.