This horse became more blue than I intended. My original plan was to make him gray, but it might actually have been too depressing of a color scheme. So the blue might just work better for this illustration. Other than that, I'm very happy about the feeling of flow and strong wind in this. It portrays the strength of the horse; he has faith in his power and does not let the headwind slow him down but pushes against it with a smile, the world around him becoming one with the flow he creates with his movement.
That was pretty poetic. Now let's move to the work-in-progress material:
Here's the very messy yet very necessary initial sketch for the illustration.
And here is the "official" sketch, the foundation of the actual painting.
Above are all the photos of I took during the painting process. Below you can see the scanned illustration. Prints, cards and original painting of this illustration are available on Wonder SHOP.