Drawing Horses

[Anonymous No.1967961]

Let's talk horses, /ic/.

I'm trying to learn how to draw racing horses without reference and it's one of the hardest things I've ever approached learning to draw. I can do them from reference pretty well now but from imagination those legs never seem to come right.

Anyone else tackled drawing horses?

[Anonymous No.1968044]

Try animating one, it'll help because not only will the horse have to look normal, the proportions will have to be consistent throughout the frames. Horses are one of the funnest animals to draw in my opinion, they've got an interesting form.

[Anonymous No.1968063]

>>1968044

Thanks. I actually carefully copied every frame from this set as practice already. I've drawn hundreds of horses. I think I'm still waiting for it to sink in to the point where I can draw them sans reference.

They do have a lovely form to them. I really dig these calligraphic Chinese drawings that really get the sense of movement in. I want to get some of that flowing quality. Gonna copy some of these in brush and ink.

[Anonymous No.1968198]

>>1967961
Download a copy of The Art of Animal Drawing by Ken Hultgren. The book has some really nice tips on construction, movement, and mood. He focuses a lot on horses. The legs are pretty simple. The forearm is about the same length as the top of the knee to the pastern and the width of the base of the neck. On the back legs, it is very common for artists to make the tibula too short; it should be the same length as cannon.

[Anonymous No.1968200]

>>1968198
Also, don't forget about horse knees

[Anonymous No.1968486]

I love drawing horses too op, they're so nice to draw. I think the most helpful thing for me was learning their bone structure. When you get down to it, the leg bones and joints are the same as humans, but in distorted proportions. Learn the proportions. Use lines and ball joints to start. Then learn the details, like where the fetlock is and how the muscles bind along the joints.

[Anonymous No.1968493]

>>1968486
Drawn over with the human equivalent joint labels. And an awful drawing of using 3d shapes to build the body.
I use a cylinder for the body, smaller at the back end. A tear drop shape is the chest, and a narrowing cylindrical shape for the neck. The rear is hardest for me. I try to make it like a hemisphere, but indented in the underside and a bit on the top.

[Anonymous No.1969725]

>>1968063
>without reference
There's no way someone can memorise all the bony and fleshy bumps of every animal around. It's ok to have a photo of a horse around at all times as a reminder.

[Anonymous No.1969753]

>>1969725

Agreed. And I intend to use references for reminding me of those details etc when I draw horses for my upcoming project. However, I'd like to be able to draw horses like I draw humans, that is; off the top of my head, where reference is very helpful for perfecting and finishing, especially with difficult gestures/poses, but where most of the power of the gesture and flow of movement come without photo-reference, which I find limits me in this regard. I'm going to be drawing a lot of horses doing a lot of things and they need to be characterful and alive.

Pic related is kind of where I'm at at the moment. I did these just now without looking at any reference. I can identify myself parts where the anatomy is way out, but I'm not worrying about that too much just yet. First I want to get the character and movement of horses naturally. I've got a big book of anatomy I'm going to study once I've got the basics down, although I have studied some skeleton/musculature diagrams already to have a basic idea of what's going on under that skin.

[Anonymous No.1969756]

>>1968198

Thanks for the recommendation.

Pdf here if anyone else is interested:

http://cartoonia.ru/lit/mast/Hultgren%20-%20The%20Art%20Of%20Animal%20Drawing.pdf

Looks fucking amazing.

>>1968493

Similar pic to yours.

[Anonymous No.1969766]

>>1967961
Not to derail this but I think /ic/ might benefit from an animals-only study/reference thread. Maybe 'animals' is too broad of a theme..

Anyhow. Like >>1968486 said,
>I think the most helpful thing for me was learning their bone structure.
This goes for every being with bones, OP. If you're struggling on a subject, learn the basics- bone anatomy can be hard altough it will help you so much in the long-term.

[Anonymous No.1969774]

>>1969766

Good advice. I've started working on it. I actually torrented an illustrated veterinary textbook on horse anatomy, so we'll see how that goes when I'm ready for it.

Animal reference thread is a decent idea.

[Anonymous No.1971649]

[Anonymous No.1971656]

>>1971649
ayy lmao
They're actually a pretty similar to horses and if you enjoy 'em you won't have as much trouble getting into actual horses

[Anonymous No.1971674]

Anything with tigers?

[Anonymous No.1971693]

>>1971649
Fuck off

[Anonymous No.1972232]

>>1971649
I don't care for the show, and the fandom is cancerous as fuck, but I'll admit that the designs and colorschemes for this generation of mlp are pretty appealing, especially when you compare it to the abominations that came before.

[Anonymous No.1973133]

>>1971674

Check out the book in >>1969756

It has big cats.
>>1971649
>>1971656

These are actually kind of helpful. It did cross my mind to study cartoon horses to help with the simplification. But just for appearances:

>>>/mlp ARRGH GRRR GTFO FUCKING BRONIES 2/10 NOT EVEN MAD

[Anonymous No.1977707]

Horsefucker here. Thanks. I really needed these

[Anonymous No.1977729]

>>1971656
>implying theyre anything like real horses and that they take any serious skill/practice to draw

[Anonymous No.1977927]

>>1967961
>racing horses
So racing horses or just horses? Because only difference is proportions.
Anyway, gotta appreciate dat ass. Become a horse fucker. I mean 3dpd horses, not cartoon horses.

Anyhow, can you draw static horse nicely? Do static first, they are perspective heavy, then go dynamic. In motion it's about gesture.
As for the legs, they are not in just one plane. They are curved. That's back legs, front are somewhat strait.

[Anonymous No.1978323]

>>1972232
I think the same. The characters are very well designed.

[Anonymous No.1980043]

>>1969756
The human presents itself to the horse.

[Anonymous No.1980047]

>>1971649
The abyss stares back

[Anonymous No.1980056]

>>1971656
Pinkie you dank bitch

[Anonymous No.1980059]

>>1977927
They have huge wet pussies.
I checked one out near where I live, it was nice.

[Anonymous No.1980062]

>>1969725
It's possible to memorize at least one kind of animal. It takes a few years of focus though.

Also, this guy, smirtouille, on da can draw them from imagination.