first completed illustration

I wanted to share with all of you the first completed illustration for The Great Red Horse:

UC Ringmaster, 2013. Watercolor and ink illustration for the forthcoming book, The Great Red Horse, copyright Helen Scanlon.


This portrait of UC Ringmaster was created with watercolor and ink on Arches hot-press watercolor paper, and will be offered as a print in the near future.

I hope you are having a wonderful 2013 so far--I am. Snow blankets the quiet corner of Northeast Connecticut, and everything is delightfully frigid (I love winter!). The design on my first book, My Horse, My Heart: The Morgan Horses of the University of Connecticut, is coming along nicely, and I am still shooting for a spring publication. I love spring, too!

The illustrations for My Horse, My Heart will look a bit different from the ones for The Great Red Horse. My Horse, My Heart will feature loose pencil sketches in black and white, and The Great Red Horse will be in full color. How could it not be? UC Ringmaster had the most amazingly brilliant auburn coat, and the book will be a celebration of that shade of red.

Thank you to everyone for your support as I embark on this important project. It is a distinct honor to create a lasting tribute to the immortal UC Ringmaster.

Oh, and another thing--a dear friend of mine just sent me a BIG box of gourmet chocolate. Winter, chocolate, horses, friends, books, art---doesn't get any better than that! I feel very grateful today.