watercolor horse portrait - first stage

I have started to paint the head of a horse. This is my first horse head:-))))
So be gentle in your comment.
The photo that I use as a reference is unfortunately not so good. The neck and breast are not shown, they are in the shadow. So I have to use my imagination a bit for that.

Ah well, I see this painting as an excercise, like always. And one day I hope I will be able to say: "I am there, I am satisfied about the result". But I am a perfectionist, so I do not think that this will ever happen.

Already many hours are put in, but I do have to do so much more.
Like the ears, the eye, the mouth and a lot of details have to be added.
But still I think that it is a good start.

Chow Chow acryl finished

Finally the Chow Chow portrait is finished. This is the first time that I worked with acryl.
In future I want to combine different materials such as watercolor and colored pencil and/or acryl paint. And also acrylpaint as a base for a painting with oilpaint. This was a lovely excercise to get familiar with acrylpaint. I hope you like it.

chow acryl soften a bit

It seems that there is not much difference between the middle picture and the third one. But I tried to soften things a bit and I am going to put more detail in concerning the hairs.
Acryl is a total different technique and it is therefor more difficult to show the softness of the hairs.

chow chow acryl next stages

chow chow acryl first stages

Last week I finished a portrait of a Chow Chow in pastel and I want to make another one but this time with acryl plaint. Perhaps I will add also a layer of oilpaint later on but I do not know yet.
These are the first stages. I have to build up many layers of color. I dilute the paint with lots of water, almost like watercolor paint.

oil painting, little girl reading, second color layer

I added some more color to this painting. Of course ....... in real the painting is longer.
I corrected it a bit with Paint Shop but.... Ohhhh, taking good photographs is sooo hard to do and often the results are so disappointing:-))))) If anyone has a good tip for me..... please contact me.

Ah well, I cannot change it. The painting is far to big to put it on the scanner. My previous painting, a pastel portrait of a Chow I did scan it once finished. I still had to scan it though in two parts and had to put the parts together with using Paint Shop Pro. It took a lot of time to do so, but the result is so much better than when I photograph the painting.

Of course painting is far from finished, but it has to dry befor I can put another layer of color on.

pastel portrait Chow Chow finished

Finally the painting of the Chow Chow is finished.

pastel portrait Chow Chow next stage

I worked hard at the head and the collar of hairs of the Chow Chow. Now I am going to paint the body and the legs.