# My Traditional Horse Art



## That One Western Rider (May 20, 2019)

Hello all! I am relatively new to the forums but I hope to meet and make friends here all the same. I have been drawing horses for 3 years now, and I feel I have greatly improved in that span of time, with my first portraits looking quite rough, but I would say as of now, their quality has improved quite a bit. Would lie to hear opinions on it, and I am also considering opening a commissions shop and would love to hear opinions and pricing for my art. My first thought would be a minimum rate of 20 dollars, and increasing at demand or improvement of my own skills. Thoughts? And sorry in advance for the less than stellar photos 😛


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Your drawings are very good! The only thing that looks a little off to me, the eyes are not defined or large enough.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

They are good. I will give more detailed feedback when I'm not posting from my iPad.


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## duskexx (May 8, 2019)

Wow, you're really talented! I think $20 is a bargain, I would definitely pay more . I think they'd look even cooler if you used stronger lighting or shading, but I think that's personal preference. Proko has really good videos on shading if you are interested though


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

I think these are really nice. They do lack detail and are less shaded but sometimes that is desired. I don't think that the eyes are so small. Everything seems pretty well proportioned.

This reminds me of my niece's stuff years ago when she first started drawing. Her stuff is phenomenal now. Keep up the good work, you have talent.


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## That One Western Rider (May 20, 2019)

Wow, thank you all! I honestly wasn't expecting this much positive feedback. These are all only a fraction of all the work I have done recently, but I am very grateful for all your responses. I hope to improve much more over time. Would any one here have an experience as a seller? I would love to ask some questions via pms


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

*feedback*

I have a hard time reallly 'seeing' a piece of artwork (that is representational), when it is upside down or sideways. Here, this one I saved and rotated and am reposting:











You have an obvioulsy naturally skilled eye for porportion. All those complicated harness pieces, they all seem to be well done. I would not have the patience.


Your eyes and nostrils line up correctly, in a plane in space, as any two objects that are parallel should. This is another area many artists are weak at.


The nostrils are very good on all the drawings. 



The thing you want to do, before you start, is think carefully about how you want the head to fit on the page, how you want the negative spaces around it to be shaped, and will they have anything there, any lines to carry the eye through the drawing. 



the other thing, when you do portraits, you must find a photo that really 'shows' the character of that animal. If I ownded the horse in the second photo, the one with the gaping mouth and rolled eye, I would not want my hrose to be remembed as such. Of course, you are just practicing, so this isn't /wasn't your intention. But, it is something you ahve to think on. 



Photos were the hrose is looking strait at you, as one of your shaggy horses is, do not make the best portraits. you can't really SEE the eye, which is where the soul resides, so a 3/4 angle is better. Looking off at about a 45 degree angly.


As others have mentioned, you don't have enough range of values. The grays are too close to each other in value. You need DARKER DARKS! 

Also, since you include EACH and EVERY detail of hte bridle and bit and harness, it can be hard for the viewer to know WHAT to look at. What is most important. So, you may want to draw in more lightly things that don't matter so much, you can experiment with allowing details to fade out, or be 'suggested', or just do something that makes a part of the drawing the focus.


what size are these drawing? what sort of paper, and what kind of pencils? Part of the reason some artists' stuff looks better is becuase they use the right tools. It matters!


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## karens1039 (Mar 26, 2018)

Wow you are very talented. Please keep posting your pictures.


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## That One Western Rider (May 20, 2019)

Thank you so much for your thoughts TinyLiny! As a growing artist, hearing a response like this is very encouraging. I will strive to improve my art more by using darker pencils and focusing on anatomy and the other things you mentioned. And you asked what type of pencils and paper I use; I use a Strathmore Bristol sketchpad that is 9" by 12", and many pencils of varied brands. I use an electric eraser to soften areas and do hair detail as well. Thank you all for your encouraging comments!


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## That One Western Rider (May 20, 2019)

Here is my most recent piece. I am trying to add people more to my pieces and I was semi-pleased with how this came out.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

If you can, put your artwork photos onto you computer. There you can save the image into your pictures or documents file, and you can rotate it and save it in the correct orientation. Then, when you make your post, to HF, from your laptop, you can upload it from your computer. If you took it sideways with your smart phone, you can try rotating the image there, but I'm not sure it won't revert to it's orginal orientation if you post ot here directly from your iphone.


The little girl is cute, but the horse is so dark that the girl is faded in comparison. Her face should be the center of the viewer's attention. She must have some parts that are pretty dark. If the photo shows her that washed out, then use your imagination and make her darker in the face (the eyes, and shadows etc.)


Again, your eye for porportion is very good, and will only get better over time. 

I would draw this photo multiple times (I assume you are drawing from a photo, no?), and experiment with values. Also, the 'line' of grass along the bottom, so even and so thin, is , well, to put it bluntly, something you will see grade school kids doing, because they do not know how to draw things going away from them in space, so they draw the grass sort of like a wall, or a fence, along the bottom edge of the page.


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## TheVaulter (Jul 16, 2019)

Lovely work so far on the structure on both the horses and the little girl.

Might I suggest doing a bit darker on your shading when you draw them. This will help them to really pop and bring it to life even more. 

My uncle, who is also an artist like me, used to say "go dark, or go home". lol
Having more scale of shading to your work will really bring them more to life. Though over all, nicely done!


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## duskexx (May 8, 2019)

I know I've already posted but I just remembered something that might help with your shading. If you sign up for Line of Action (which is really helpful regardless) you get this exercise that helps you get different values with pencils. I haven't tried it but you could give it a go if you wanted!
't


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