Draw a Horse Head

Draw a Horse Head:

Drawing the faces and heads of animals, apart form anything really... is not easy. Because you have so much detail to do, more than any other part of the animal.

Not only detail, there is also the individual animals expression that also needs to be captured.

Now I am going to show you how I learnt to draw out my diagram lines for a front head sketch of a horse and a side head sketch.

 I have a side profile photo of a horses head, and you can see by the lines of the second photo beside it, that I have drawn in my guide lines for you..

"To draw is to make a shape and movement in time." - Stuart Davis, 1951

This is how my basic guide lines would be drawn out. The fixture points guide you on to where you will draw in your basic shape of the horses head. The overall proportions of the horses head is now taken care of.  If you don't get the proportion right firstly, all the rest of your drawing will be out of proportion.

Now, guidelines...... The points show you where you will draw in the eyes, nostrils and ears of the horse. You just need to use this as a guide, and finish off all the necessary details when you draw a horse head. Once you have a fairly detailed drawing of the horse. You then rub out the guide lines. And start to put more detail into your drawing, and also your shading.

As you can see by the second set photos of a horses head below. I have given you the guide lines of the horses head side view. To draw a horse head, get the basic shape down first, then draw in where the jaw line will be. After that you fill in the details. Rub away the guide lines and them start shading and, of course filling in your finishing touches.

Now, just remember, that when you put in these guide lines, don't put too much pressure on your pencil. As this will make lines on your drawing surface. And all the rubbing in the world is not going to take away the lines. Because you will be left with groves in your paper, and they will show through your pencil shading.

So I would advise you to use a soft pencil, not a hard pencil. I find that this method works for me. No circles or triangles, I find there are too many lines. As basic as these outline guide lines are, they will guide you on the right track. And not having all those other guide shapes everywhere. You don't have to get confused when drawing in the further details.

You can mark in points within the outline guidelines to show where you are going to put your details. These will give you the right points to start filling in the details. And yes, I will allow you to use a ruler for the start to get these outlines drawn at first. As they are straight lines. Though I hope that as you improve. You will try to draw these guide lines in freehand. See, I'm not too hard on you am I....

Lets return for Draw a Horse Head to Horse Art