The Headless Horseman

Over the past few weeks I have been working on an illustration from Washington Irving's short story the Legend Sleepy Hollow. I wanted to focus on the Headless Horseman and I have managed to come up with various compositions and solutions. Finally I have gotten to where I am happy with one and I have included it from start to color study in this post. At the moment I am unsure of what medium I want to use to take it to the finish. I am leaning towards acrylics although it may be fun to do a large watercolor, in which I hope would be a bit more atmospheric and moody than my initial color study. There are still a few things that need to be solved in the illustration such as how and where ,and whether or not I am going to include the Horseman's cape. Including the cape may mean that the fun shape in which the Horseman and his horse create will be lost. So I am trying to find a way in which I can include it, where it will not interfere to much......

Below I have included my initial sketch, my final drawing ,and a color study :

Rough Sketch

5"x 5"

Final Drawing

8"x 8"

Color Study

Watercolor and Digital

8"x 8"