Draw a Horse Head - The Final Steps


You have been learning to draw a horse head in this tutorial. If you are up to speed, you'll be ready to start step seven and then finish your drawing with step eight.


  • This is where you will add more details and shading.


If you just landed here, you'll want to go back to the beginning so I can guide you through the process.





#7 - Add Shading and More Details


(i) Lightly shade in the ears and the left side of the forelock.


  • If you need more information about shading when you draw a horse head, you can find it in the later steps of another tutorial here. (Opens in a new window)


(ii) Darken the eyes and leave a small lighter area


This helps to give the eyes some depth.


  • Make sure the lashes are still noticeable. If not, you can re-draw them


(iii) Add shading to the left side of the head.


Use the picture above as you draw.


(iv) Shade in the nostrils and shape the nose


(v) Draw a curved line to the left side of the horse head and shade as shown


This represents the horses' back and keeps the head from looking like it is floating in space.


  • When you draw this you can see that it starts about at the top of your two vertical nose lines and that it ends well below the bottom of the nose.


(vi) On the right side of the face on the neck add more shading


If you look you can see that this shading is in line with the right hand vertical line down into the nostril area.





#8 - Shade Some More and Erase Guide Lines

If you can remember back when you started the drawing you used simple figures to block out the shape. Now you will:


(i) Start by gently erasing the marker lines you drew at the beginning


(ii) Further shape and shade the nose and nostrils using the picture to guide you


(iii) Add the finishing shading to draw a horse head that looks realistic


And your creation is done!


  • When your work doesn't turn out like you wanted it to, don't get discouraged. It takes a lot of tries when you are first learning to finally get the look you want.


  • Keep trying by doing this and my other horse drawing tutorials more than once.



Leave this draw a horse head tutorial to go to the index page where you can find lots of great articles about riding and handling horses