Derby parties coming

This week’s Entertainment Tri-State cover is a quickie drawing on the upcoming derby parties around the area this Saturday.
The initial idea was to have a horse and rider, but with the horse rearing up with a glass of wine in its hooves.
However, I wanted to convey the idea of a party with grilling out and several horses around. So I came up with the first rough.
I also briefly came up with the notion of including a television (for them to watch the festivities) but after sketching it out, I realized its inclusion would make the composition feel clunky.

Now in the second rough, I’ve moved the wine horses to the foreground and placed the grilling horse (sounds weird doesn’t it?) further back. This gives the composition more visual depth. Since it is a quickie, I’m going to try to minimize the number of detail horses — those horses that I want more attention drawn to. I may end up doing a grayish background mass — which is a way to wash in the illusion of a crowd of horses without investing a lot of detail and time.

Here’s just a quick mention. As I started to draw my horse heads, I didn’t like that they were coming off “mule-ish.” These thoroughbreds are an elite group and needed to exude that sort of dignity and aire. Check out my before and after.

I also think it worth mentioning that in drawing horses, it can be challenging to get the body structure right, otherwise your horse can come off looking like a big dog. That will be a challenge as I create horses that can cook on a grill and pour wine into serving glasses.

More to come later … but not too much later.