I find it wonderful... the mane is awesome and the colours are as well... such a freedom breathes from it

--
"The fearful sit
in a clutch with their worries,
Whilst one man alone
faces the furies."
(Andromeda)

I'm not sure if this applies to what you want, but I just thought I'd give some insight about long hair.

To make it look silkier it should be much straighter. With pieces curling this way and that it looks curly and very bedraggled. Long gently sweeping strands that sometimes cling together will give a silkier appearance.

In your picture it appears as if the wind is blowing upwards from below, which wouldn't be natural. Most of the hair is sweeping to the right, but in the upper left there are strands sweeping left, this too feels unnatural.

For the most part I understand the light to be coming from the right and a little behind the subject, but that means that there is too much light falling on the left side of the horses face. And also too much light on the upper part of the face which should be shaded somewhat by the upper Mane.

Maybe for the background a neutral color would work. Just a beautiful light grey with only a hint of slate blue. If you lighten it the dark horse will begin to stand out beautifully.

Your friend Olek.

Black is always challenging to get good depth and highlight into. The mane is true to the Friesian Breed, so that is spot-on. The light is a little tougher to get right.

Unless it is sunset or sunrise, the light is too warm, making the horse appear brown in color. And the face has too much light on it.

When looking at the neck and shoulders of the image, the lighting there looks more from behind. But when viewing the face, it looks as if it is nearly directly in front.

I would add some more shadow along the near side of the jaw through the muzzle,towards the neck. and only highlight the top line of the jaw under the eye, and the top of the curve along the line of the nostril up towards the eye.

If you want to keep that warm sunset type lighting, I would add a warmer tone to the background in order to match the feel of the image. If you cool the tones down, then the background will be fine as is.

I personally find this piece quite lovely! And I think you have a great eye for equine art!

--
Look to the Sky...For my Head is in the Clouds.
Pocket Drakes have been cast! [link] Reserve yours today!

This picture is wonderful but the horse is much too brown to be a Frisian. Though all Frisian vary in how much brown they have on them, this looks more like a brown horse. I would put a lot more black and try using some grey lighting limiting the brown. I would keep the brown in the mane but take it off the face, unless the lighting it's self is making the horse brown.
Lastly the end of the nose is much to small or it looks like there is a dip but a Frisian's nose/snot is thick and straight.

--
The Crazy wolfy with a shovel.

Dead I am the life, dig into the skin
Knuckle crack the bone, 21 to win
Dead I am the dog, hound of hell you cry
Devil on your back, I can never die

Well, after reading your description, it sounds like you were going for black, but... perhaps the camera ate the color and spit it out brown like mine? XD
For all that I draw horses, I can honestly say I REALLY don't know much about them, but I think you did fine It all looks okay to me!

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There are a lot of good critiques already for this so the only thing I can really suggest for making it look glossier would be to keep adding more highlights and maybe more contrast with the shadows (I think someone already mentioned something like that?). Other than that it looks really good Where the highlights hit the face is spot-on.

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_{let's go make out with her friends!}

I really like how you did the mane, Fresians are such beautiful horses

Could be an awful idea here but I was thinking of blue-black for the background (?)
I'm not even sure myself about that idea

Just thinking it could give you the opportunity to bounce some of the blue onto the horse to achieve that sort of navy/brown look black horses can have eg: [link]

Heh heh... it did lighten it some. The paint is thicker, and so retained a bit of reflective sheen to it... Bah!

I was going for a warm glowing sort of dawn light to this, and it seemed to me from the various photos that I was using that his black coat would shine warm reddish brown. But I think it needs some adjusting. I just don't want the dark shadows to seem flat, either.... Oh, this has been an enormous challenge!

But it'll get there! I promise!

Yes...needs more!

As much as I love black, it's always been such a tricky topic for me. It can go wrong so easily!

Now I am more determined than ever!!!!