The story behind the image:

I took the original photo armed only with a cheap consumer camera. The preparatory drawings were almost more revealing as I needed to differentiate among the various tones and shadows with precision in order not to lose image integrity.

That said, the shadowing and sky were fairly well invented, as compositional quality is always of the utmost importance to me as an artist.

As I painted, I pondered if the reality of what I was creating actually superceded that of a rider's reality, or did it compliment it.

Preparatory Drawings and Watercolors: NONE AVAILABLE