Alex
is a jockey and sadly lost her favourite horse Country Tide. She
contacted me wanting a portrait to help ease the pain of losing him.
She had a lovely
photo of the two of them but it was
taken inside a stable via a mobile phone and wasn't really sharp or
clear enough for me to create a good portrait from.
She
had other clearer photos of Country but she really loved this photo
which shows the connection the two of them had.
I
knew it would be difficult but I could see how much it meant to her
and suggested that if she could find a similar horse I could come
and take some extra photos .With those to help I was able to create
their portrait although it certainly wasn't an easy task!
Below
is the original photo .

The original
reference photo -
From looking at
other photos of Country I could see that this photo didn't really do
him justice. He looks really dark and drab here. You can't see his
eye, or any of the structure of his head and Alex's face is all
overexposed.