Horse Portrait

[TrottierJS]

Here is a WIP of my latest commissioned equine portrait... took a total of 13 hours.

9" x 12" on blue Mi Teintes.

Sorry about the scan job .. just couldn't get a sharp focus...

[mosh]

Hi Trottier
my sister loves horses and this one here you drew is really pretty
i showd it to her and she loves it
so
beautiful job
and keep the great work up

[TrottierJS]

Here's another few some old and some new.. can't wait until I'm finished with the pony commissions so I can do some beasty sketching...

[DragonSnail]

Damn nice horses! They look so real you can almost smell them. ;) My only nitpick on the first one is that you can't see the second ear, which ought to peek out there somewhere. Do you only draw after photos or are some of these without ref as well? Whichever, you really get in some nice details on them, would love to see more. :)

[TrottierJS]

Thanks so much Dragonsnail!!

I have to say I love your digital work.. "Pinned" is especially creepy and captivating all at once!

There are two ears there..

I do some with and some without references .. but I find I do better work if I use some reference shots.

[dose]

Nice work- I particularly like the one in your avatar.

My main crit in this one would be that the highlights in the shoulder are too contrasty & distracting. Also (and this might be the scan)- look for the color of the highlights. Right now they seem to be the local color of the horse with the white of the paper showing through. Look for a color shift. You may not be able to see it very well in photos so you may need to look at some horses in person.

Also, I would control your edges a little more carefully- especially where the horse meets the background. Right now the very detailed horse seems very separate from the more impressionistic background. Softening some of the edges- particularly the bottom of the neck & the mane where they meet the background- will put the subject & the background together in one atmosphere. Also, the background will then make more sense as being out-of-focus, since there will be other parts of the image that are a bit out of focus as well. Keep the head sharp in this one, since it's the center of focus.

Hope this helps

Tim

[TrottierJS]

Thanks for the comments Tim,

I had a huge struggle with the background .. started out trying a peachy monotone look, hated it and moved on to the greens and added blue.. I made it soft so that it would not compete with the horse. I agree on softening the edges .. I'll take that into account on my next commission.

Thanks again!

[alesoun]

Wow! You really know your horse anatomy, don't you? I agree with Dose about the highlight on the shoulder,- the shoulder looks a bit depressed in the top pic, where the highlights there seem to work better in the bottom pic.

What other kind of creatures do you like to draw or paint?

[TrottierJS]

All sorts of creatures, though admittedly I have to work on my human anatomy quite a bit along with other animals. I have focused a little too intently on the equine figure, in turn I have neglected other species.

I love greek mythology, medieval mythology, (winged horses, unicorns (go figure) dragons, twisted mutated beasts combining different species.. gryphons.. and the like) Grew up watching sci-fi and horror from the 80's, some fun stuff there for sure.

I really enjoy the classics too.. like vampires and werewolves..

[Shantih]

Lovely work, I've been trying so hard with horses but I doubt I'll ever get them like this :[

[TrottierJS]

Like everything else it just takes practice.

It doesn't hurt to be around them in real life either. In grooming and caring for them you get to know their muscles and how they move.
As I majored in Equine studies for my Associates, it certainly helped. My bachelors is in Fine Art.

[Shantih]

I've rode since I was 5 but in the last couple of years I haven't been able to as much :( I do have some friends with horses though, during the summer I'm going to ask if I can come sketch them.

The Equine Studies must be helpful, I sometimes get annoyed at myself for not becoming more serious about my involvement with horses...but maybe one day when all this college malarky is over.