Kodabble:
Love the centaur idea. Makes me wish I'd thought of it … and wish I'd had the skill to draw it too.
Hope you manage to get a working tablet soon to treat us to more of these pictures.
Octoberstormxx:
I still like that first sketch. I would've been cheeky and posted that in the finals thread, it's certainly interesting enough with those glowing, energetic lines.
I hope your neck starts to feel better. Keep it rested and then get drawing again!
Atto:
If you'll permit me to disagree with you then let me say that I think this is a pretty imaginative use of the reference. Particularly the choice of composition with that clever use of the repeating "V" shapes in the valley of the background and the anatomical angles of the horse.
That landscape is terrific too. Those distant trees seem to extend back forever into that convincing mist and the foreground has some amazing texture to it that contrasts well with the smoother, brighter transitions on the animal.
And of course, I should have known it would become a unicorn. You just can't resist a Bladerunner reference!
Thomgirl:
Such a great idea. So very far away from anything I could ever have imagined. But even great ideas need someone with the talent to paint it. Oh, and I guess you have that too.
At the start I thought you were just gonna do a dark pencil-style drawing, which would have been wonderful, but then you put in those highlights and it looked even better. I then thought it'd be a greyscale picture with deep shadows and sharp highlights, which would have been wonderful, but then you added colour and it looked even better again!
It's a really beautiful piece of work, almost perfect in its execution. I think the only minor thing I'd like to tweak is that white ground plane. I love the diagonal but the chalk-style texture falls a little between the softness of the background and the sharpness of the detailed horse. But who cares about that really? Not me! It's a fantastic picture that expresses a love of horses and nature, and does so in a vibrant and dynamic way.
So my vote is gonna be … Thomgirl.