Opinions on my sketch?

I drew this just over a year ago, and due to finances I literally haven't been able to afford a drawing booklet since then O.O

Anyways, care to offer opinions or a critique? The quality of this is much better in person, the scanner kind of ruined it.

Katelyn Stromgren's Photos | Facebook


Feel free to browse the rest of the album if you wish, it contains my breyer horse tack!

Here's the pic on it's own.



Thanks!

Its really cute! I personally would of extended the right hind hocks just a bit so that his movement didn't look so confined and moved his tail up more to where his spine connects to his tail bone- but that's just me I'm really picky with my sketches! I LOVE his face, it really captures how noble s/he is. Great job!

Good suggestion on the hocks!
And I hate how the face scanned. I'm really good at drawing eyes, but the scanner makes them look like goat eyes.

It's very nice, try to focus more on shading now.

I hate scanners, they never seem to like me

Yep, scanners are horrid- I usually just end up taking pictures of my sketches and uploading them xO

Aspin,
I usually take photos too, my work being too large for our scanner.
The rear hock is ok, it's the rear pastern/fetlock joint that isn't in line with the lower leg bone, as it should be. Look at the way you drew the front leg which is bent back. That is more correct and the rear leg will function the same way in the pastern joint.

Overall the porportions are good, the head a tiny bit small and the ears are bent in the wrong direction. Really look at a horse with his ears pricked forward and you will see that the bend in the ear is the opposite form what you have drawn.
If you have a chance , look at a horse skeleton diagram and it will help you see how to pub the "meat on the bones".
Very good start.

Equiniphile- I'll try to find the original sketch and take a photo, the shading is much better than it looks, but still needs attention.

Tinyliny- Thanks for the helpful suggestions! I do need to work on the hocks, and muscling, and I totally see where you're coming from about the rear pastern- that was a total oversight, and something I'm not likely to repeat.
I really, really struggle with getting the ears correct, I always have. Any suggestions? I don't draw from a model or photo, but from memory and the overall impression I want to make. I've tried looking at photos of ears, and of nostrils, and around the eyes, but I can never get it right from a picture! What's worked for you in the past?

Here is the general ear position on a horse/pony that I mini sketched (pardon, it took me like 30 seconds o.- not perfect.) and on a real horse =] look them over, maybe it will help.

Aspin, I too have trouble with nostrils and to a lesser degree ears. When it comes to portraying a ungique horse as opposed to just a generic horse, it's the ears that make or break the portrait.
I would suggest drawing from photos a lot at first until you get it down. It is not a simple curve but is several curves in all three dimensions, so is not a simple thing. More diffuclt than cat or dog ears.

Thanks Endiku and Tinyliny!