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drawing of a horse head *critque*

2K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  tinyliny 
#1 ·
hey everyone my first time posting on here so be honest and lemme no what u think about my drawing:D
 

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#2 ·
Keep it up. It helps if you can just sit and study horse heads, looking at individual parts. I was taught to fill pages with just eyes or nostrils, how veins bulge, in intimate detail. My first assignment was to do the trunk of a birch tree. It's amazing the details one begins to see. Years later I did a pencil sketch of an old dirt/wood loading ramp our trailer was parked beside. I discovered great beauty in that old ramp.
 
#3 ·
Good start!

However, there are some glaring faults in some aspects - make sure you really study your reference picture. The curb rein of a double bridle attaches to the lower section of the bit, not the actual mouthpiece. You have the snaffle rein correct, just the curb needs to be changed. One of the cheek pieces also stops halfway down the face so the snaffle is not attached to anything and neither is the curb.
Little technical faults like this can turn people off a drawing, so be very aware to get closely check your reference photograph.

Your tonal work is quite good, though I am finding it difficult to distinguish the eye.
Proportions are generally quite good, just a few small flaws such as the poll and top of the face angles very steeply giving the horse a very narrow top of the head.

For starters, very good work and I am being super picky!!
 
#4 · (Edited)
I agree. A very good start. Being a fellow artist, I'm going to be very picky here, just as a warning.

Personally, I like the picture. The shading is a bit too dark though- and isn't allowing the eye and nostrils to contrast very well. A horse's eye is rather almost shaped, with the pink showing as a slight triangle and the wall/pupils blending into eachother. A horse's lower lip juts out a bit like a curb, then becomes smaller and rounded at the bottom, and indents where it meets the rest of the face, giving it a soft feel. Adding a glimpse of tounge would be nice, also- seeing that the horse in your picture is portrayed as working against his/her bit. (ears back, mouth gawking)

As for porportions, you've definately got the right idea, but if you can use your thumb to 'measure' dimensions of one part of the body to another, I think it would help a lot. For instance. A horse's whole muzzle is the same legth as it's ears, the crestiest part of a horse's neck is the same width as the width from the lowest part of it's cheek to it's poll, and it's nostrils (you drew very nice, clean nostrils by the way!) are roughly one and a half to two of it's eyes.

Small things like that are what makes the animal realistic.

Very good job though. Keep it up, you obviously have some talent!
 
#5 ·
Great work so far, I like how you have a good range of lights and darks, and the detail in the bunching of his neck is very nice. One tip that could help is to remember that the lines for the forehead and from the cheek to chin groove are not parallel, but instead form a slight acute angle, with a small triangle for the chin. Here's an example:
http://www.thehorse.com/images/content/trach_side.jpg
 
#6 ·
Ladies! Those are some super good critiques. I learned something , too, about the portportions. I do use my thumb, or a pencil to make porportioning work, but I hadn't thought it out so scientifically.

OP, you won't get a better critique than these!

I nave nothing to add, except post more!
 
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