Arabian stallion drawing - need your thoughts

I've got a couple final sketches done of different lighting for the Arabian stallion I'll be drawing next, and I could use some opinions on which you like better...

#1?

 or #2?

Specifically, do you like the face in shadow (#1) or catching the light (#2)?

Anything else that stands out to you about one or the other?

Project 365 - January 22-28

Tuesday, January 22 - I joined the county fair board and attended my first meeting. This was the agenda for the evening.
Wednesday, January 23 - I delivered Meals on Wheels to homebound people in the area with my mom. This is the basket full of empty trays being returned.
Thursday, January 24 - You probably can't tell, but this is me. This is what I've looked like the last few days of single digit/below zero temps. I don't keep warm easily, so when the temps dip this low, this is what I wear - jeans and long-sleeve shirt (and if I'll be out for a longer period of time, I add long underwear), heavy insulated coveralls, fleece vest with high neck, sweatshirt, heavy denim jacket, hood/face mask, stocking cap, heavy gloves, socks (with extra pairs if I plan on being out a long time), and heavy boots. It's a long process getting in and out of all that clothing which is why I love summer so much!
Friday, January 25 - Playing piano is one of many hobbies I never have enough time for. I especially like playing Lorie Line and George Winston pieces.
Saturday, January 26 - I actually forgot to take a photo for Project 365 today, but luckily, I had taken photos for Sketchbook Sunday, so I do still have something to show you. This is my current classwork for Art Instruction Schools.
Sunday, January 27 - Relaxing for the evening with my husband. Maybe someday you'll get to see his face.
Monday, January 28 - Looking at sales listings of bulls. We're looking at getting into a kind of new breed - Black Herefords.

Sketchbook Sunday - January 27

Working on sketching for the Arabian stallion drawing.

Drawing a practice portrait for my lesson on portraits.

Project 365 - January 15-21

Tuesday, January 15 - We got my grandpa moved to his new place, and this is the interesting old barn that sits across the driveway from the house.
Wednesday, January 16 - A beautiful sunset through our grove. (It was too cold to go out to the road and take the photo, so this was taken from our doorway.)
Thursday, January 17 - The birthday gift I prepared for a long-time friend. Her husband requested we send her 30 of something that reminded us of her (it's her 30th birthday). We have a hilarious memory involving melting Dum-Dum suckers over candles, so I sent her 30 Dum-Dums as well as a nice candle as the "real" gift.
Friday, January 18 - This is my way of organizing my menu plan. I have each recipe written on a piece of magnetic paper with different colors representing beef, chicken, vegetarian/pork, side dishes, and dessert. Each week, I choose two beef recipes (since we raise it and it's cheapest for us) and one each of the other categories. One day is always "Try new recipe".
Saturday, January 19 - Cookie dough! I was craving it, so I used the single-serve "safe" recipe I adapted from Pinterest - 3 Tbs. whole wheat flour, 2 Tbs. sugar (brown or white), a splash of vanilla extract, 1 Tbs. butter, and 1 Tbs. milk (or a bit more if needed to obtain the consistency you like). Mix together, add as many chocolate chips and/or nuts as you like and voila!
Sunday, January 20 - In cleaning out my grandpa's house, I found many treasures. This one is my grandma's recipe box stuffed full of handwritten and magazine-clipped recipes.
Monday, January 21 - The weather widget on my computer dashboard. Needless to say, I'm staying inside as much as possible and can't wait until Saturday!

Sketchbook Sunday - January 20

This week's work - I was in Wisconsin for a couple days helping my Grandpa move to a new house, so not a lot of time for art, but here's what things look like now.

I'm working on hair for the Art Instruction Schools portrait lesson. The left side of the sketch was done, and I'm filling in the right side. I found this very difficult as they had put in lines to show the direction of the hair, but they were such a jumbled mess that they really didn't help at all.

A whole page of sketches of my model horse shown in last week's post.

My next project is to draw this stunning Arabian stallion as a thank you to the people who so generously gave me my two horses, Intrigue and Encore. The photo is blurry because I pulled it from a video, but I'm thinking this is the general pose I'd like to do. I'll be doing just the head and neck, and he will be big! I'm going to work in the same sketchbook in which I drew "Looking Back in Time", approximately 14x18".

And because last week, I was asked to post the finished teeth drawing, you get this. I never finished it as I didn't find teeth difficult to do and decided to spend the practice time on something that did need it, but there's more to it than there was last week, so here it is:

Project 365 - January 8-14

Tuesday, Jan. 8 - One of my Breyer Christmas horse collection.
Wednesday, Jan. 9 - Eating supper at work - leftover Italian meatloaf, Doritos, and a banana.
Thursday, Jan. 10 - Out for pizza with a friend. Pepperoni and almonds on my half; almonds and extra cheese on hers.
Friday, Jan. 11 - I'm excited to finally have a designated space set up for scrapbooking! I still have to clear out the drawers to store scrapping stuff.
Saturday, Jan. 12 - One of the sun dogs in the afternoon. It was cold!
Sunday, Jan. 13 - I pulled out a knitting project I'd been neglecting for a while and was reminded why I'd put it away in the first place - the huge tangled mess in one of the skeins of yarn!
Monday, Jan. 14 - I went to Wisconsin to help my grandpa move to a new house. This adorable puppy did everything she could to impede the progress and then finally reached the end of her boundless energy.

Sketchbook Sunday - January 13

In my Art Instructions Schools portrait lesson, I've been drawing facial features all week. Right now, I'm working on teeth.

For my sketching, I've been doing different angles of a model horse. After two non-horse drawings, I needed to get back to my favorite subject. A couple years ago, I did this with another model horse - just rotated it a little each day and drew whatever angle I was looking at. I felt it was a really good way to really study all the different angles, and I wanted to try it again.
Here's the horse I'm working from:

And here's one of the sketches I did this week:

Still working out what I'm going to do for my next drawing, but it feels pretty good to have a break from a pressing project.

First Project 365 post - January 1-7

I'd debated doing Project 365 this year, but I had not really committed to it due to the fact that I did make quite a few other mini-resolutions and decided I had enough on my plate already. But about 8:00 on the evening of Jan. 1, I decided to go for it. Nothing like last minute decisions!

I decided to go with a collage format, but if you would rather see my photos full-size, let me know, and I can do them that way instead.

So here we go - the first week of Project 365, 2013:

Jan. 1 - Playing dominos with my family.
Jan. 2 - Putting the finishing touches on the portrait I gave my mom for Christmas of her cat, Bummer.
Jan. 3 - Freshly baked bread and burger buns. I've been baking my own bread for over a year now and have gradually started baking most other bread-related things as well - buns, pitas, pizza crust, etc.
Jan. 4 - Pieper, my dog. This is her confused face wondering why the heck I'm kneeling on the floor pointing a black box at her and telling her to stay where she is.
Jan. 5 - My show tack from my 4-H days. This is set up at the library where I work for our western-themed adult winter reading program. I thought this was an appropriate day for this photo as it was 9 years ago today that I lost my precious horse, Sugar, who wore this saddle and bridle.
Jan. 6 - A self-portrait. We got back from playing games with friends from church at about 11:30, and I realized I hadn't taken my daily photo yet, so this is what you get.
Jan. 7 - Working our 2012 beef calves. They got shots to keep them from getting certain diseases (much like humans are vaccinated against measles and mumps and even chicken pox and the flu) as well as a solution poured on their backs that kills parasites. The boys were also castrated at this point and we took a closer look at the girls to see who might be good future cows.


Now that I've started, I'm very glad I decided to do this. I think it'll give you a look at my real life that I don't share much of simply because I don't know what and how much to talk about without boring you.

Sketchbook Sunday - January 6

Back at it this week. Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple weeks. The only thing I had to show I couldn't for fear of ruining a Christmas surprise. I showed a photo of him earlier, but here's the signed, finished scan.

Sketching from a model horse on my desk.

The finished assignment for my foreshortening lesson. I have the crappiest scanner known to man, so it's very light, but you get the idea.

And working on the next lesson - portraits. Going to be drawing lots of eyes, noses, and lips this week.

On a side note, I decided the evening of Jan. 1 to join in on Project 365 this year, so you'll be seeing weekly posts of my photos of the previous week. If anyone else is joining in this year and blogging about it, post a link to your blog in the comments - I'd love to follow you!

I wasn't entirely honest...

I have a confession... When I said I was taking a break from drawing for the month of December, I was lying. This is what I was actually doing:

The reason for the deceitfulness was that this is a portrait of my mom's cat, Bummer; this was her Christmas gift, and I could not post progress photos for fear that she'd take a peek at my blog.