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Published: 2005-04-28 02:18:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 98985; Favourites: 1931; Downloads: 10832
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EDIT: Ok people, I'm very sorry you have to endure me re-submitting this huge chunk of tutorial. -_-; I had to fix a few things. And, excuse the spelling mistakes/incoherences in the image. This is dinosaur-age old, and I was brainless at the time.Again, fond excuses,
Hazel
Oh, yay. A tutorial!
This will sadly be long, but hopefully helpful.
Keep in mind that art is done using a great amount of grueling patience. For one artwork, it can take from minutes, to hours, weeks, years, etc. Depending on the artist and what she/he is drawing, using what medium. For some artists to get very good, it usually takes some many years to master a certain style, or for them to be proud of their work (note: usually, no artist is very proud with what they accomplish, lol.)
The worst critique you can get is from yourself! Be a perfectionist and be focused on what you're doing. But also, keep in mind that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself, or overwork yourself.
Anyway, these are just mere tips I use. You don't have to follow them, but I personally think they help a lot. Oh, and one more thing before we start. This tutorial will be done in pencil (a 'How To Draw Horses/Equines; and not a coloring or other type of tutorial) and will be performed in my style, I guess.
Bah, enough babbling. ^_^ Here's the damn thing.
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1: Head
I usually start with the forehead, when I draw most animals. You can start wherever, though. I've heard that a large majority of people begin with the eyes, which is the norm.
I begin my heads with an oval-ish circle. This will later on form the cheek and forehead. Then, I lengthen the forehead and draw a medium-sized line, which will turn out to be the front of the face. Next is the muzzle. Draw a square-type form in the area where you want the maw to be. Then, sketch out the form of the jaw and lips. I suggest looking at real horse reference images to do this. It takes quite a while of practice to get right (for me, anyway!) After this, we'll do the ears. Well, it's just a question of time before you master their form and structure. I drew a little diagram for the ears. A good trick to get that little annoying swerving curve at the tip of the ears is to draw a circle/oval in between the ears.
Lets leave the eyes and detail out for now, and continue.
2: Neck
Make a long, spinal, vague "s" shape going from the back of the skull (under the ears) and continuing down to a curve into the shoulder area (note: the spine does not run down the crest of the neck, it's a bit lower than that.) You can continue this line straight out through the back and out the tail, as the whole structural base of the body.
Next, you do the jowl/throat. It's a sort of curl under the jaw, where the base of the neck begins. Now draw a curvy line to complete the neck. Above the neck, where the poll continues, you can just follow out that spinal shape we did, earlier. Follow it and then end it in a soft bump (this will be the withers.)
3: Torso
Draw a diagonal line going from the withers, and ending just about where we stopped the neck. This is the shoulder blade. Continue it in a triangle-ish shape. And you can even start a bit of the forearm (see image.) Try to use a reference picture to understand how the elbow works. Then try and make a box-type (though more rounded) shape for the protruding chest, if needed (you may not necessarily want to draw this for dainty, feminine mares.) It's the continuation of the lower neck and the girth's meeting point, if you will.
4: Body
There are mainly two large lines to this shape. They'll sort of flesh out the majority of your horse and put everything into proportion. If you want to be anatomical correct and more careful, you can make a box around your horse, to see where everything will fit (I sometimes do this.)
The first line is the back. Long and slightly dished. After that slight curve, there's the croup/rump. Make a small yet elongated/slanted bump to identify this.
For the belly, begin the line as a stretched skin chunk (where the girth strap would go) and then just add a slightly rounded gut. ^^
NOTE: The stomach/girth is always flowing with the chest. Look if both are at equal lengths (pretend there is no foreleg, and only one block, instead of it getting separated in two.
5: Rump
It has a 'sharp' bony edge under the tail.
Um, in the image, I just decided to add a bit of bone structure, in order to situate ourselves just a tad more. :]
Try using real life horse references from pictures (or, if you have the luck, from living horses that you can go visit.)
Is your horse shaping up yet? I hope so! Because if you find anything wrong, any errors, or other nit-picks that are bothering you, then you better get to them now before we continue. Fix things you don't like, as soon as you can, before continuing further. If you don't, you most likely won't be able to fix them, when you're doing the final touches.
6: Front Legs
Start with the forearm, in an almost arched shape, and just flow down. Remember the soft, barely noticeable 'bump' joint in the near-center of the leg. This is the knee. The back part of the knee is also often has a slightly more developed lump. After, just do a pair of fairly straight lines, parallel to one another. Then, the ball-shaped fetlock. Do two more (tiny, this time) parallel lines, coming out of the fetlock diagonally. They're going to form the pastern. Close it up with a small line linking both lines of the pastern, and voilà. The foreleg. You can just follow these steps again, to draw the other front leg.
7: Hind Legs
Start off with the thigh area and follow the many curves down (again, I strongly recommend using a real photo as reference.) Don't forget your stifle, the part of stretched skin near the belly, where the back 'knee' would be.The middle part of the leg is rather straight and parallel to it's back end. Then, there's the hock, protruding at the behind and soft and rounded in the front. Then, two more straight, parallel lines for the lower leg, and finally, the hind fetlock (from here, it's roughly the same thing as the front legs.)
8: Hair
Yay!
The best trick I can give you is to just look at images of real horses. All locks are certainly not all the same length. Whatever you choose to make, your horse's hair should be varying and original. It gives the horse more definition to its unique personality, bet it a low-cut mohawk, a flowing, knee-length, wavering mane, an intricate running braid, or a neatly pulled mane. Hair begins in the center of the forhead (lower than the poll), usually in a lightly 'caved in' point of above the eyes, in the center of the face. It ends at the withers. The tail starts at the dock (extension of the spine) and then ends in the middle of the tail itself. The rest is just hair, which is what trails down sometimes down to the ground. In the tutorial, I just very lightly sketched out a few shapes for the mane and tail, because I didn't want to keep the viewer's eye straying too far from the anatomical point of view of the drawing.
9: Hooves
Draw a diagonal line straight out of the pastern. Make it follow in a continuation of that same line.
Then the back line. A shorter line that's located right at the back of the leg. Roughly parallel to the first line.
Finally, draw a flat line at the bottom of the hoof, to connect the first and second lines together. Front hooves are very similar to back ones. On the tutorial, I failed miserably with my hoof diagram, but it's just to get the point across. x)
10: Detail
Finally.
Draw the eye. These vary the most in artists.
Put in triangular shaped nostrils, with an oval curve.
Add the mouth. The lips tuck in together and form a slit in the lower middle of the muzzle, under the nostrils and often closer to the chin.
Fix the muscles, place extra lines... For example, a line tracing the crest of your horse. Or a cheek line, right under the eye. A facial streak. Or even a muscle ripple for the forearm or hind legs. A bone or joint bump, etc. Erase all the extra sketch lines or muscles/bones (I won't do that thought because I'm a lazy bum.)
Have fun.
- - - - - - - - - -
Thank you for being patient, and I'm hopeful that this at least helped SOMEONE. Lol, I'd love to see your horse drawings; be it your first, fifth or if your an expert, already. ^.^
NOTE: The Jack Hamm tips are extremely useful and always have been for me. I strongly suggest viewing them because they are very worth it. Study them carefully!
These two pages are far better than any tutorial I could ever muster up, lol. --> [link] and [link]
This tutorial was greatly influenced by the famous Ken Hultgren.
Related content
Comments: 156
moucoy [2013-03-25 22:51:38 +0000 UTC]
(also; Links redirect to "404 Not found". I might suggest you fix them is you can)
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Hazel-rah In reply to moucoy [2013-03-26 14:20:10 +0000 UTC]
This tutorial is so old, I don't even remember what those were supposed to link to lol.
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moucoy In reply to Hazel-rah [2013-03-26 20:39:44 +0000 UTC]
lmao, I assumed
I didn't realize how old it was, lordy
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moucoy [2013-03-25 22:50:41 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! I don't have that much of a problem with the side view of the head(when i actually try), but its the legs that allways fuck me over xD
Great tutorial.
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YaNeferMaat [2012-10-29 03:02:34 +0000 UTC]
Very helpful; thanks! You're obviously very talented.
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LordoftheRingsGirl98 [2012-10-26 14:34:30 +0000 UTC]
Thanks for posting this<3
Horses are my favorite animals but i can't ever get them right. This is so helpful<3
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karrierudd [2012-07-17 23:53:33 +0000 UTC]
I saved it just incase you deleted it
great thank you this helped me alot!
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pachirisu88 [2012-06-19 05:45:39 +0000 UTC]
Regardless of how correct this is it seriously helped me to draw horses.Mine typically end up looing like ponies for some reason...
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Futurodox [2012-05-02 20:16:50 +0000 UTC]
hello...
you made a mistake
the back legs... his femur bone is broken, and patella is to high following the mentioned mistake...
thats the thing marked with (f) on the drawing.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hazel-rah In reply to Futurodox [2012-05-02 20:27:47 +0000 UTC]
You do realize that this deviation is over seven years old? To me, nothing in this is accurate anymore. I've debating deleting the whole thing entirely, but I think it's one of my most popular pieces, for some weird reason...
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Futurodox In reply to Hazel-rah [2012-05-04 18:35:00 +0000 UTC]
sorry, i did not look at the date.
no offence.
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The-whist-hound [2012-03-12 20:10:13 +0000 UTC]
Any chance of you making a very detailed leg tutorial? *hopeful*
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Hazel-rah In reply to The-whist-hound [2012-03-13 22:37:56 +0000 UTC]
lol sorry, no. I don't do tuts anymore. But thanks for the interest!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The-whist-hound In reply to Hazel-rah [2012-03-14 08:54:49 +0000 UTC]
Darn xD
Oh well dont hurt to ask.
Thanks for the response ^_^
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Turtrox [2012-01-10 12:49:53 +0000 UTC]
you missed a couple like the barrel and the corenet band the thigh the lips... oh haha.... It's okay... It's a good try anyways.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hazel-rah In reply to Turtrox [2012-01-16 00:23:56 +0000 UTC]
This isn't a thorough anatomy drawing, it just shows basic parts for me to explain where/how I draw certain shapes and parts. Lol, I mean, the horse has hundreds of anatomy parts, and I just outlined the basic ones I needed to mention for the 'tutorial'. There must be only around a dozen listed here, so yeah.
Anyway, as it says in the description, this tut is ancient; from 7 years ago or something.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
PuppyLuv101 [2012-01-09 22:44:32 +0000 UTC]
as old as this is, very very very very helpful! thanks for creating this!
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VinillaBean [2011-06-30 20:16:24 +0000 UTC]
I love horses, this will help me draw horses better! thank you. adding to favorites.
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jay1892 [2010-08-25 05:02:21 +0000 UTC]
Thanks so much for making this tutorial! It was very helpful
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Meganpony [2010-06-14 02:56:27 +0000 UTC]
Always have trouble with the neck and head of a horse and espeacially the hooves. I also have trouble with details they get me ALOT. But i young so i will improve. Love it! It help SOO MUCH!
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WB-MF [2010-04-13 18:25:19 +0000 UTC]
tis is a very good tutorial and it helped me a lot! thankyou
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TobiObito4ever [2010-02-04 00:37:33 +0000 UTC]
Ah, thanks! I can't draw horses to save my life... OTL
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ChickNFriedCrow [2010-01-06 09:24:45 +0000 UTC]
okay okay, so I drew my pony and indeed it looks like a horse. but im not sure if its me or not. but for some reason i keep thinking its rear end is to big.?? idk somethings wrong with my dimensions or something. which is leads to my question. what parts should roughly equal the same as other like. head to chest should be the same as chest to hoof(roughly) but what about the width of the hind legs? |---Width---|
not
_
|
| not height.
|
|
-
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Hazel-rah In reply to ChickNFriedCrow [2010-01-09 04:48:54 +0000 UTC]
That tutorial should be deleted. It's too old, full of illogical errors, and just plain crappy. I wouldn't use it too seriously if I were you. xD I made it so long ago, it's beyond inaccurate in so many fields.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
ChickNFriedCrow In reply to Hazel-rah [2010-01-09 06:49:48 +0000 UTC]
I was using it more as a base more then anything else. Still my horses ass is still to big, and when I fix it it seems to small. lol nobody wants an obese or anorexic unicorn
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hazel-rah In reply to ChickNFriedCrow [2010-01-09 15:39:23 +0000 UTC]
Then practice, more than anything, will be your answer. Over time, practice will make you better. Good luck.
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SpectralDove [2009-11-03 16:16:49 +0000 UTC]
wow this is really helpful , especially this ear part , i have trouble getting them right
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LavinceLara [2009-09-13 12:02:58 +0000 UTC]
Cool, I always have problems with horse's ears but now I should do them better, thanks ^^
This helped much, though I can draw horses well but still, now I can draw my horse better ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
arcticphoenixstudios [2009-08-11 06:48:50 +0000 UTC]
Very nice. ^.^ Would be even better if the lines were darker, but it's ok. I can still see everything.
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LittleShadow73 [2009-08-07 23:42:26 +0000 UTC]
eeep! I love your ears! Thanks a bunch for this!
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Aamarka [2009-07-30 09:46:58 +0000 UTC]
I love horses, I had real crush on them when I was like 13-14.
Your tutorial is really nice, and helpful too.
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Rakari1 [2009-07-05 12:04:19 +0000 UTC]
This girl once LOVED horses as some girls do.. so one day I copied one of her pictures and drew a Grudge face on the horse and put it in her binder and we heard a scream next door.
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debbie2008 [2009-05-09 00:13:07 +0000 UTC]
I just found this and wow it's just wonderful I hope to draw some .. in the next weeks ahead
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Kimblewick [2009-03-08 11:11:06 +0000 UTC]
This is a great tutorial - and you're a great explainer, don't worry xD
I have a Ken Hultgren book as well, he's fantastic, isn't he?
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ChuLolli [2009-03-07 22:27:51 +0000 UTC]
i reaaaally needed this, now my horses with no longer be a flob of flesh representing a horse 8O
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XxGeeRoxxX [2009-03-06 15:52:44 +0000 UTC]
very nice! this actuaally will help me. I'm not the best at the withers and the shoulders. Nice work
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