This was made for a contest by Beckykidus on Deviantart. There were a lot of amazing entries, and while mine did not win I had a lot of fun returning to my roots in animal portraiture

For this picture I actually referenced 3 different photos, all taken by DancesWithPonies, who takes such gorgeous and well-shot photography, I couldn't pick just one

For the pose:

https://www.deviantart.com/danceswithponies/art/DWP-FREE-HORSE-STOCK-279-750927903

For the horse's colors- I could have used the one above, but I fell in love with these. I adore rich orange/gold colors paired with white contrast:

https://www.deviantart.com/danceswithponies/art/DWP-FREE-HORSE-STOCK-282-750928265

For the background:

https://www.deviantart.com/danceswithponies/art/DWP-BACKGROUND-STOCK-7-738338665

I very rarely have the energy to go full balls to the wall detailed, but I put forward everything I got for this piece! In total it took about 5 hours, and has 22 layers