Digging out the Watercolors

A friend had a birthday recently and I decided I'd make her a really simple horse card. It took 4 versions, but I finally got the horse's look right. :)

The eye color isn't that of your average horse, but I was basing this off a palomino stud I know. He's got amber eyes, a stripe down his face, and does have red-gold highlighted mane and steel dust jowls. This representation of him is a bit refined (it looks more like a mare than a stud; a Morgan than a QH), but perhaps a future revision will be more accurate.

The scanner didn't quite capture the true color, and the muzzle is shaped a little oddly when you think about it, but I'm pleased with this horse. I'm still awful at drawing whole horses, but at least I can do the heads. :)

Watercolor + Horse Lineart

Within the past two weeks I've been working to draw a yearling horse. Well, I can't take all of the credit; I originally traced the horse from a picture in my "96 Horse Breeds of North America" book. Some minor changes were made, most of them being accidental and originating between tracing traces of traces.

Last week I finished the line-art copy of the drawing, and today I felt bored and dug out my watercolor paints.

I would have used our oil paints, but the supplies were in hiding. :(

Stuck with the watercolors without the right colors for a buckskin, I attempted painting a red bay.  Fortunately the paints had a lovely shade of cherry brown to use. :)

Considering I haven't touched a paintbrush for years, it turned out much better than I had expected!

The mistakes are bothering my perfectionist side, but most of those are housed within the horse's conformation (not the painting). The horse's neck looks oddly shaped due to the mane, the face is a bit disoriented, and the head looks disproportionately small. Oh, well. At least this counts as painting practice!

My favorite part of this is most likely the nearer hind leg. The shading on it turned out nicely. :)