Making Progress in Your Horse Sketch
Continue with the Outline



The next bit of progress on your horse sketch through this ongoing tutorial will have you completing the outline of the body of the horse.


If you just jumped in you may want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "tutorial beginning" to get full instructions and follow along. Don't worry I will lead you right back to this point!




Four: Begin by Plotting Out the Body



You will start by lightly sketching the profile of the horse's body using curvy lines by following the sequence below. Remember those shapes you just got done drawing in the first three steps? They will be your guides for this next part.



  • Remember, don't get discouraged! It takes many tries to get the hang of it!


The order for this part of the horse sketch should be:


(i) Join the two ovals on the top with curvy lines as shown to form the withers, back, loin, and hindquarters.


(ii) Sketch a bottom rounded line to join the two shapes that form the belly.


Also note the slightly curved section in the front representing the chest.


(iii) Next is the contours of the legs.


Use what you have already drawn to help you get this part right. You'll need to draw the shoulder, elbow, knee, cannon bone, and fetlock joint profile for the front.


Add definition in the outline of the stifle area, gaskin, hock, cannon bone and fetlock for the back legs.





Five: Neck, Face, Tail and Finalize Outline of the Horse Sketch


(i) To sketch the neck make two slightly curvy lines above and below the neck triangle.


As you can see the tip of your pointy neck triangle will become the ear. You can make adjustments to it by adding a bit of curve to the back part to show the shape of the ear.


(ii) Next make the contours of the face triangle more curvy and tapering


This will form the forehead and taper into the muzzle area. On the bottom side you will need to add definition for the cheek bone.


(iii) Finally, make two curvy strokes, one short one long that join at the bottom to represent the tail

When you are happy with each bit of the process, go back using darker lines. On the photo above you can see the final darker lines for this whole step.




Six: Erase all the Geometrical Strokes and Shapes


Alright! After all that hard work there is an easy thing you'll need to do before moving on.


(i) Erase everything but the outline you just darkened.


You'll get rid of the egg shapes, lines and circles for the legs and as you can see a bit of the neck triangle.


How does yours look so far?


Now you are ready to move on to the final steps of your horse sketch! Next you will add more details and shading.


Click "next step of tutorial" to finish, or "back one step" to go to the previous page."Tutorial beginning" will take you back to the overview page.



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