very cool

Whoa awesome!

great job!!

Ember martens - also styled as coal martens - don't really exist: I cooked them up as a tenuous pun: there are birds called 'martins' which makes it very occasionally confusing if you're trying to talk about 'martens' (tree weasel), so I was musing one day about appropriating some of the adjectives used to distinguish various 'martin' species with 'martens' instead.

Unfortunately, the most promising was 'sand marten', so I cheated and took 'coal' from 'coal tit', which developed into 'ember mart' - 'mart' because polecats (ferrets) used to be called 'foumarts' (foul (smelling) martens) whereas pine martens used to be called 'sweetmarts' (presumably because nobody managed to get close enough to smell them!) 'Embermart' sounded authentic.

The effect of embers beneath her fur is perfect! It really looks as if she's on fire.

I love her stumpy build! Works really well with that action pose. Such a fun piece.

Io davvero, pensavo avesse lava sotto al pelo... xD

Bel quadro, hai sempre un'ottima scelta per i colori. =)

Lovely body and face, and I like the pose too :)

I like characters who're heavily towards the animal end of anthro, and standing astride two horses just shows she's successful as well as skilled. :)

This is all kinds of awesome.

Sorry, I'm not sure why I didn't comment here instead of by PM!

Thanks for your hard work pondering though how to render this wind-blown fur effect, bringing my silly made-up etymology to fruition, and for taking the time to research the steppe setting so well! I really think you've captured her fierce delight perfectly.

I'll frame the original once I'm not exhausted from baby duties, but it's up on my bookshelf where I can see it every day - so handy, your painting on... MDF, is it?

No problem, I'm very happy you like it and I enjoy researching geeky things like rendering odd fur effects, as time consuming as it can be. ^_^
As for the support I'm not sure whether it is MDF or HDF because the naming is inconsistent across languages. In Italy we have a separate term for plyboard ("compensato") but other than that all the medium and heavy treated boards are commonly referred to as "masonite", which is not correct since actual Masonite is a specific brand of HDF.
However I did a lot of research on the various kinds of support and both MDF and HDF seem to be fine, only plyboard is unfit for painting. And before painting I coat the board surface with three layers of acrylic gesso, which prevents the oil from messing with the glue in the fiberboard and makes for a highly durable support. Just don't try your luck by pouring water over it though! X-D

I hope the family is doing well by the way. ^_^

I'm bouncing on a gymn ball with her strapped to my chest as I type, hoping she doesn't vom up on me... Hurrah for phones with internet!

I love the way she's stood on both those horses.

times like this I love e621. I love your skills, its peices like this that inspire me to be a better artist. it looks amazing! acrylic oil or felt?

Thank you, I'm glad my work can inspire other artists! This was painted with regular oil paint on hardboard treated with a gesso coating. I like it better than acrylics because it's glossy and has more subtle nuances of color. Unfortunately that doesn't show from the scans but it's a very cool effect in RL.