A Sagittarius for a Sailor and Archer

This was a fun assignment, as it finally gave me a good reason to paint water and a boat - something I haven't actually done yet.

Early English persona meant I could use one of my favorite sources: Yates Thompson MS 26

The exemplar:




















And my finished piece:

In technical terms, I know where I went wrong. My red paint was not thin enough and so I had streaking left by brush strokes. I am very happy with my gold, and happier with my calligraphy than on past pieces.

This piece is 1:1 for the original, although there is much more room around the outside than there is in the exemplar. I did that for ease of framing - the finished size is 8x10.