Loads of horse portraits!

I am currently working on four horse portraits and have just finished another two. I can show you one of the finished ones and one pencil draft - the others are birthday and wedding surprises.

This is the pencil draft of a charcoal horse portrait showing young Friesian gelding 'Nicky'.

This portrait I have just completed - it shows the Friesian gelding 'Watse M'. Sadly, he is no longer with his owner who still misses him a lot. She is very happy with his portrait.

Head study, charcoal, A4.

Friesian mare in charcoal started

Some of you may remember the Friesian filly I drew last year. I am drawing her again now - this time her owner wants to give the portrait away as a present. Again the horse will be drawn in charcoal as it is such a wonderful medium for black animals in particular!

I am also going to do two pencil drafts today and should be able to upload them later. One is of a Holsteiner gelding, the other one of an Arab. So watch this space!

Welsh Cob portrait started

I've been working hard today! In between adding the finishing touches to the portrait of Moritz the Haflinger horse and working on Carlitos' drawing, I also managed to start another equine portrait.

This one is of a beautiful chestnut Welsh Cob called 'Geoffrey'. At this stage, I am not yet worried about the fine detail such as the look in the horse's eyes but mainly about the proportions. They have to be 100% correct from the start...if you get them wrong at this stage, you won't be able to do much about it once you've started using pastels on it. So I always make sure everything is exactly where it should be before I pick up a pastel pencil. I'm still debating whether to change the angle just slightly and add a little more 'body' to the left hand side of the horse.