Sofie Eating

I sat on a fence rail at the farm recently and sketched Sofie, the draft horse, as she had her afternoon meal alongside Abby. They shuffled around lazily the whole time, exuding contentedness. 

The only one who wasn't contented was the barn cat, Handsome. Unknown to me, he was right below me when I shook out a big brushload of water. He jumped up like a thing possessed, but he never figured out where the sudden cloudburst came from.

After a quick lay-in, I laid in large tones in watercolor with a one-inch flat brush, then worked in water-soluble colored pencil (red-brown, ochre, and black) to define the forms a bit more. Finally I touched up along the back and the mane with white gouache.