Hi!!
I have a few tips that might help you out!
-Make sure you're blending the colors together (Smooth transitions bring the piece to life!)
- Always choose a background you think you can work with! (Ex. With this piece I would not have a blood bay(I think is the inspiration?) set in a purple themed background. The horse stands out way to much!) (I would look for a nice orange/Yellow autumn vibe/sand look for this as it's easier for myself as a somewhat new artist to incorporate the color schemes together!)
- If you want to have the horse as a main focus point, and decide to blur the background alway make sure the cut from blur-->regular is smooth! I use a low opacity blur brush for this!
- When it comes to the hair part of prep I cannot stress this enough, take your time! Start with a base and create the outline of how you want the mane and tail to look and work with shading and highlighting after! (Drag the tail down with a low opacity smudge brush so it doesn't look so "cut")
my pms are always open! sorry for any typos or anything crazy! (I'm half asleep!) :))