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Art Progress

11K views 121 replies 14 participants last post by  Horsesdontlie 
#1 ·
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.
 

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#58 ·
Thank you! I was so happy to actually be able to get a blood bay color look to him. The highlight ares are still wonky and I didn't do a very good job with proportions. But I'm happy with the general colors and blending. Now to just get all of those into one! Lol. Your welcome and thank you for letting me draw the pretty boy.
 
#60 ·
I've been pretty busy and have been unable to draw due to a move and school starting.

I just started a new piece today. I actually am doing something more than just a horse. I'm adding a calf and a rider....good gosh I think I have bitten off too much. But I had an image in mind and wanted to go through with it

Here is where I am so far: I'm about two hours into it (I had to redo the calf cause I was off on the depth perception)
 

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#63 ·
People suck! I do have to say. Its so hard to be able to create the soft look of skin without messing everything up....UGH! This one has to be one of my best (Sadly). I now see the head is too big and I have to fix the cheek. There were no details in the face in the reference photo so its had for the eyes... Its give or take.... Thank you though I wanted to start challenging myself so I thought a scene would be good to start branching out. It required me to be up to par on how I draw horses so it doesn't look like a decently drawn horse with a deformed person from mars on its back.

Here is the horse and rider, Contemplating doing a little blending but I am liking the roughness for right now....
 

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#65 ·
Hmmm...looking good! I never draw so many details, I keep messing the drawing up in the end :-(

The only thing that I see here is that your person seems a bit big for the horse...or is it just me overreacting like I normally do? :? Well, just my opinion. But how on earth are you able to put so much detail in your drawings!!?? I'm impressed!
 
#66 ·
I tend to focus too much on details and mess up my work. Its hard to find a happy medium. I find myself liking other peoples drawings that are much simpler. There is always something about someone that can do a lot with just a little bit of shading or line work. Then again its all personal preference. Thank you though!

In general the rider is pretty big. Cutting horses tend to be smaller and when they get down like that they look even smaller...BUT my riders head is too big and my horses head too short.

Here is the original photo (I'm not going to post it here as it's not mine but found on google)

Click Here
 
#69 ·
Fantastic work!! I love all your horses eyes, I find it very hard to make it look real. Love the pastels as well.

I have a stack of photo's of all types of horses if you want reference! :)
 
#70 ·
Thank you! It took a little while to figure out how to make them look semi-realistic. I just found out how important the reflection of light while keeping it with a spherical look. It took me years to just get a simple idea about it.

I responded to your message but I would love more reference photos.
 
#72 ·
Those are all good ideas. I've been wanting to get out and take some of my own pictures but my camera needs to be cleaned as it just got something between the lenses and now creates a spot on my images. =\

I don't know many photographers but I'll keep my mind open. At this point I'm just wanting a lot of practice and would prefer to not have to write an email every time I pull out my pad. But next time if a specific piece catches my eye I'll contact them before drawing it up.
 
#73 ·
Iloverains supplied some photos for me.

I choose one of a buckskin morgan, going to try and remain a little simpler with this one...but we'll see.

Outline (not as dark as it seems, I had to mess with settings to get the lines to show up)
 

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#74 ·
I have really obnoxiously loud roommates so instead of sleeping I choose to finish this one. I really like it, did a lot more smudging and blending and was more free with my lines and how I did my shading. Came out a lot better than I thought! Its more solid looking then I typically do as well, which is what I was looking for.
 

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#75 ·
Wow that is amazing! Defintly one of your best ones! The mane is so lifelike and the horse has a soft look to it. The halter is also spot on, your use of shading under it and precise outlining makes it appear that the horse is actually wearing it. Mine always look apart of the horse (something im working on haha)!

Excellent work!
 
#78 ·
I have had the HARDEST time with figuring out hair. I'm finally starting to figure it out. I think I'm starting to figure it out without having to do tons of details. Thank you though, the tack I also just recently figured out. Took a lot of trial and error to make it look like it was its own piece and had its own shading to it.

Thanks horseluver10.

Iloverains, she is gorgeous, which is why I choose that photo. I loved the long mane too. I get used to seeing horses with wimpy mane (like Jake) or its short for shows that I just get goggly eyed over thick maned horses. Thanks again for letting me have access to your photos!

Also if anyone has a large, clear and in bright light photo that they want me to draw I am fully willing to give it a try. I'm too lazy to create a side forum for it.
 
#79 ·
Hi! I'm fairly new here and just found your thread...WOW! You are doing a FANTASTIC job of improving with every drawing you do!

This last one is definitely your best, in my opinion.

You are very talented with horse anatomy, especially in some challenging poses that many artists would pass up.

Your thread is inspiring me to dig out my art tote and get in touch with my artistic side once again.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the excellent work!

Toni
 
#81 · (Edited)
Nakiska - Thank you so much! I'm glad other people see improvement as sometimes I get frustrated and think I'm not improving. I'm glad I inspired you! Drawing is such a stress reliever for me and I really enjoy it. I'm glad if other people pick it up too. ^-^

Caitlin - A little over two hours I think, but I never pay attention to the time.

Another one I did today : For some reason I like making the horses a lot stockier than they actually are and the heads are never long enough from the front. I really need to work more on doing straight on drawings rather than from the side.

I also grew very lazy for the hindquarters. I might try and go over it to fix it later but I don't know. I may just start something else.
 

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#83 ·
You say that like I intended to cut off the legs for artistic purposes . ;-) The reference photo stopped just below the knee and I was too lazy to try and free draw it.

Since I have always had a limit drawing capabilities I am forcing myself to draw other things, and the current subject its dogs! There is no forced order but before I get back to randomly drawing horses I should complete this list. The current plan is
  1. Dogs (0/5)
  2. Cats (0/5)
  3. People (0/4)
  4. Wild Animals (0/3)
  5. Inantimate Objects (0/3)
  6. Total (0/20)

The first sheet is the warm-up practice for legs and bone structure and proportions. Feel free to laugh. ;)



The second is a more serious study. The dog is some Shepard cross, so its not supposed to look like any specific breed.

 
#84 ·
That is a wicked Idea making yourself draw a certain amount of different subjects! I might steal that idea thanks.

I love the dogs! Nothing to laugh about at all they are superb. Cant wait to see this one ^^ done!
 
#85 ·
I've always just drawn horses, it gets very frustrating when you want to draw something else but its never to the same quality. So instead I'm forcing myself to do this. Its hard enough that I want to go crazy, but I guess it'll be good in the end. I'm already mostly done with this current one and had to stop because I'm getting frustrated over the fur. I don't get how people can make it so realistic.
 
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