Drawing Horses

Part 2

If you can write, you can draw.

Here we offer you some examples and tips to get you started. Use our sketches as outlines for your work. Many of these pictures have been drawn on a computer with a graphics pen. Talent has nothing to do with it, except to give pleasure to others.

Everybody thinks they know what a horse looks like, knows that is, to recognise one from another kind of animal. To draw one is different; then you must start to observe closely.

The first time someone draws a horse, they make the hock joint bent, almost at right-angles. When you look at a horse, see how straight his hocks are if he is to carry his own weight properly. Your next task is to draw the hock and fit a horse onto the front of it.

Arm yourself with an H or HB pencil and a putty rubber, and don't be afraid to use both vigorously.

It doesn't matter if there is a horse in front of you or not. When the paper turns dirty and scuffed, place a sheet of greaseproof paper over it and trace up. Then place a piece of drawing paper over that, hold it against a well-lit window and trace up again. If you can't see the outline properly on the greaseproof paper, ink it in with a fine felt tip pen.

Don't be afraid to "worry" the lines, and always leave your drawing from time to time. When you come back to it, refreshed, you will be able to see your mistakes clearly. It is often possible today, to enlarge or reduce the size of a drawing using a photocopier

Using short straight lines to delineate the major planes gives a drawing greater strength than continuous curves, which weaken the outline and make the horse look sloppy. Range over the whole animal rather than trying to finish one part, but examine each detail with determined observation.

Photographic fussiness is neither possible nor desirable. Most of the detail is suppressed, but what is depicted must be accurate. Concentrate on diagnostic characters to produce almost a caricature, and you will have made a simple, but powerful statement.

The bodies and legs of geldings can be fitted into a square. Stallions are a little taller and hold their heads higher. Mares have a longer back and a more delicate head. Draw an outline of the animal standing still first. Then redraw the action, using a compass to swing the limb joints into position, starting with the point of the shoulder and the hip, remembering that the length of the bones does not change. The set of the head and neck is critical; when active, head up and neck arched. When docile, the head is lower with a straighter neck. Eyes are high up, ears on top of the head, noses dished, straight or Roman.

When pulling a load, the forehead is in front of the nose, and one foreleg braced well back. Unlike the ox, perhaps the greatest indicators of power are the hindquarters, so avoid an inverted pear-shape. In heavy horses the Vastus muscles touch the muscles of the second thigh. From the rear the impression is of a box. It is desirous for the back to be short and straight in a real animal, but a dip and exaggerated belly make the animal look more natural. The Trapezius muscles form the withers, the point at which a horse's height is measured. They are like a tapered scarf onto which the neck is fitted.

Don't read any more of this advice until you have actually drawn a horse. Don't wait, DO IT!

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