Here's the shire painting started. I've primed up a 24 x 31 inch board with three coats of acrylic gesso and one thin coat of naples yellow acrylic. The horses have then been carefully traced onto the board from the original drawing, rubbed back (so that the pencil lines aren't too strong) and the painting begun from the left.

As you can see the first mare is almost done, though I will probably go back to her to strengthen up the muzzle.  The 'black' of their coats is a combination of  ultramarine blue, raw umber and ivory black oils mixed with titanium white alkyd to aid drying time. I've just started the second mare and will update the blog as soon as she is properly underway. Typically for me I haven't decided on the background colour as yet but It will probably be an earthy brown to tie in with these grand old ladies.