Dark Horse

A hill covered in rocks and golden grass and sprinkled with little white flowers rises among a forest of evergreens. Atop the hill stands a majestic horse with a dark grey coat, brown eyes, and a black mane and tail. Overhead, foreboding clouds fill the sky.

While I have depicted a dark horse in literal sense, the term "Dark Horse" has another meaning. Its origins are in horse racing, but today, it refers to any sort of participant in a competition who suddenly rises from obscurity to challenge the leaders. You can encounter dark horses in sports, politics, and business.

I actually got the idea to do this artwork one weekend when I was rummaging through my attic. I came across an old box of comic books from when I was a kid. Rather than Marvel or DC, I collected a lot of Dark Horse comics. It made me think about how many products and businesses use the term. I thought it would be interesting to make a design of an actual dark horse, hence the horse is a bit stylized, and this work looks a bit like a painting to be used for a label of some sort.

Note: this image uses purchased products

Tools used: Poser, Vue, GIMP, Photomatix

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge

P.S.

Prints for this are available from my print gallery: daniel-eskridge.artistwebsites…
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