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Description
You know you're there when you see them, for they are impossible to miss. The River Horses, from which the valley takes its name, are not horses at all, but giant carvings of them. Leaping or striding out from the rocky cliffs cut clean by the water, they stare with unseeing eyes at all that passes before them.

There has been much research and investigation as to who carved them, and when. For the oldest and most complete has been tentatively dated at about five thousand years, but all the others range in age between that time and the present, and accounts from brave explorers and lonely travelers have shown their number to be increasing steadily, with new horses appearing after every flood or exceptionally high water. Because of this some researchers had proposed that it was not people at all who carved them, but the river itself.

My first pencil epic of the new year! The scenery here was much inspired by my time on the Middle Fork of the American River, and by the winter sunlight, which seems to work its way into my drawings every year.

I am not sure where the River Horses came from; I just had this vision of this huge sculpted horse-head looming out into the frame and I thought, I should put that in the last place you'd expect! Like hanging out over a river! In coloring it I even tried to give it a slightly different texture from the surrounding rocks.

And yes, that is our trusty Lonely Rider and their (non-sculpture, mobile horse).

Colored pencils on 9"x12" illustration paper. This picture appears on page 101 (101!) of my Black Book. Art and related prose © myself, some rights reserved:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. If you repost or reuse any of this material, please credit Agent-Elrond (and/or Grace Ogawa) and provide a link back to her deviantART homepage (agent-elrond.deviantart.com). Permissions beyond the scope of this license can be obtained at Agent-Elrond.deviantART.com . Thank you, and enjoy!

Description
You know you're there when you see them, for they are impossible to miss. The River Horses, from which the valley takes its name, are not horses at all, but giant carvings of them. Leaping or striding out from the rocky cliffs cut clean by the water, they stare with unseeing eyes at all that passes before them.

There has been much research and investigation as to who carved them, and when. For the oldest and most complete has been tentatively dated at about five thousand years, but all the others range in age between that time and the present, and accounts from brave explorers and lonely travelers have shown their number to be increasing steadily, with new horses appearing after every flood or exceptionally high water. Because of this some researchers had proposed that it was not people at all who carved them, but the river itself.

My first pencil epic of the new year! The scenery here was much inspired by my time on the Middle Fork of the American River, and by the winter sunlight, which seems to work its way into my drawings every year.

I am not sure where the River Horses came from; I just had this vision of this huge sculpted horse-head looming out into the frame and I thought, I should put that in the last place you'd expect! Like hanging out over a river! In coloring it I even tried to give it a slightly different texture from the surrounding rocks.

And yes, that is our trusty Lonely Rider and their (non-sculpture, mobile horse).

Colored pencils on 9"x12" illustration paper. This picture appears on page 101 (101!) of my Black Book. Art and related prose © myself, some rights reserved:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. If you repost or reuse any of this material, please credit Agent-Elrond (and/or Grace Ogawa) and provide a link back to her deviantART homepage (agent-elrond.deviantart.com). Permissions beyond the scope of this license can be obtained at Agent-Elrond.deviantART.com . Thank you, and enjoy!