Two options for a key panel

Page 12 needs to show Uccello drawing a rider on a horse (his old master Ghiberti has advised him to do this to help with the commission). Initially I drew the horse in the foreground and Uccello in the background (Figure 1). This was quite a strong composition the horse in the foreground emphasising it's scale, with Uccello drawing from a safe distance. It also referred back helpfully to the scene on page 1 (Figure 2) where we see Uccello drawing, and an imagined image of a horseman (in the same pose). I like the blank space around the key figures and would be inclined to sketch in only minimal background at most.

​The image of the rider is based on the central figure in the first Uccello panel  (Figure 3), although in this instance I have drawn it with a 'civilian' rider,in the same pose, to suggest that Uccello will turn this into an image of a soldier. There were two slight problems with this: firstly that Uccello would be drawing the horse from the other side to what we see in the painting; and secondly that we would have to do a 18o degree flip to the next page's images of the drawings - this seems to be considered confusing though given what we will be looking at on the next page will look like drawings it may not be a problem (and I could perhaps add Uccello seen from behind).

In any case I tried an alternative version with Uccello in the foreground, so he is drawing the horse the right way round (Figure 4). I had saved my posed 3D figure  (adapted from the provided 'take a note'), so I just needed to change the angle.  The problem with this version is that we lose the scale of the horse, and also the composition is generally less elegant. An further alternative might be to use the rear view figure of Uccello on the following page. The 180 degree flip perhaps won't be an issue, as the reader presumably needs to reorient to the scene when they turn a page.

Figure 1 (above) - Page 12 draft version 1

Figure 2 (above) - Uccello, The Battle of san Romano (London) detail.

Figure 3 (above) - Page 1 showing Uccello drawing, and variants on the same image of the rider.

Figure 4 (above) - alternative composition for page 12.