Art Progress

I know I've been absent from the site for a while now, but I am getting back into it a little. Despite that I have, on and off, continued drawing when I have the time, (full time job and a full time student....Ugh). Tinyliny commented on a few of my sketches and it made me realize that I want to keep drawing and would love any and all critique. Here are my most recent sketches, some are unfinished because I lost my motivation or was just focusing on one point. Right now i'm just using a mechanical pencil and a sketch pad. (I want to improve my basic outlining before I buy anything expensive...). I feel like i've been stuck for a while now and haven't been improving much.

Sorry some pictures are so dark, I have such a hard time trying to get my camera to take decent pictures of drawings, and the scanner has been out of order for a while.

I love seeing your "skeleton" in the Western horse on the bottom! This is a great technique for getting the proportions and anatomy to work.

But in light of that, I also think you're rushing the process with it a little bit -- you have the bridle all drawn out and hardly any work on the head or the rest of the body; you want to "flesh out" and lightly draft all of it before you begin making the details. (Because you may decide later that the bridle doesn't fit proportionally and want to change it; but now it's a little late.)

In short, KEEP DRAWING. You are already venturing into various subject matter, different poses, and even realistic shading techniques. So you listen to miss TinyLiny and keep up the good work; I'll be subbing to track along with you!

The skeletal structure really works, It also helps to show actual bending of the joins and helping keeping that realistic.

On the western horse I actually was only working on tack/rider. I drew the horse's outline but had no need to finish it as I was in the mood to try and draw the saddle and rider. I'll probably never finish that piece.

Thank you! Hopefully I'll be able to keep drawing, I'm making some life changes and should have more time on my hands to keep on practicing.

I was on a train today for about an hour while heading up to visit family on the holiday and drew this without a reference.

Trying to work on more details, I know the proportions and structure is off, but overall was pleased that it came out somewhat decent without having anything to look at. Anyone got advice on mane/hair. I have been unable to figure out how to work with fur/hair in general and have no idea how to go about it.

Current WIP - I always have a problem with starting in the middle of the paper and running out of room, and I don't figure that out until its too late. Since I draw head then eventually getting to hindquarters.

I love the cat looking upward! Just love it.

As for the horses, your ones in movement are much more appealing. Your understanding of the movement footfall and skeletal structure, as to how it bears weight and all, is pretty darn good. There's always room for improvement, so just keep looking back at your old stuff, comparing to new, and to photos of real hroses to see if you have been missing something.

For example, the last piece has really good hindquarters, but the front leg is kind of chunky and stiff, and the chest is not quite as large as it should be. Maybe it's that the front "flying" leg it coming out of the body a wee bit too much, as if the elbow is a bit unjointed.

But, in reality, none of that really matters if you have energy in the drawing. You can exaggerate all you want, if it has spunk and flow and makes the viewer feel like it's jsut going to run right off the page.

Go faster! Draw a lot faster for a bit so you wont' get stuck in details. Get a softer pencil, like a 3B or a 5B and some cheap paper , and go FAST!

Good work!

When you're talking about the front leg, could you care to elaborate a little more? I'm not too sure I understand. I've posted both the final piece and the reference picture below. I have my leg angles a little off, looking at it now, the grounded leg should be a at a bigger angle from the vertical while the flying leg needs to be a little more closer to it. Now that you've pointed it out, it looks more like locked knee, is that what you mean by stiff?

Faster will be hard! I'm so stuck in my one drawing style. This exact size and straight on, but typically facing the left (so I forced myself to draw to the right) and at a medium slow speed for outlining and rather fast for shading. I've been trying to vary it up but it all comes out wacky. I have finals in a week but maybe I'll be able to get some softer pencils are more paper after that and really practice without worrying about grades.

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

Seeing that reference photo I think you got it pretty well. The leg and the shoulder are in a line, just like you had them. YOu did quite well capturing the movement.

Thank you!

I've had a question and thought I would ask you, over the winter break I want to purchase better materials and what not for my artwork. What would you suggest for brands for pencils, charcoal (I really would like to start charcoal.) I think at first I want to just get some light (like you suggest) pencils. I also want a bigger sketch pad and possibly some drawing basics books. I'm not too sure if there are specifics I want to look into or not, but I would love some human/face anatomy and other random books that show basic shapes and proportions. I always see so many of them, and they're either not very detailed, or too complex.

Also to anyone else, If you would like a picture to be drawn of your horses feel free to post some pictures. I need to branch out from just drawing Jake. I will pick and choose ones that are clear and large enough to show details.

Current project, I would like to redraw this picture later and possibly give it to my friend, she is going through a hard time trying to rehome her mare. I would like to draw a picture for her to remember her by but it might be a year before its to a point I would be happy with it. Currently it looks nothing like her mare...