saw this on the main page, nicely done

Thanks very much! ^_^

no prob man

oh , fantastic job with the eyes!! the eyes are SOOoo important in a peice like this. It allways makes the difference between something looking good and something looking great.

Thanks! I feel that I can manage eyes now. And maybe manes, too. ^_^ Thanks again for faving, too!

You are welcome! and yes, you are progressing quite a bit. I have only one critique for you, and it's how the shading tends to show up on your drawings. they are strongly directional which sometimes detracts from the pictures because they give the illusion of different "planes". Maybe color along contours of how the body would be filled out or something? or blending the colors ? I don't know how to change that, but it is a pretty distinct feature in a lot of your drawings. Still though, I allways like them since they are so well and accurately rendered!

You are absolutely right! It's something I've been partially aware of for a while now. It's easy to draw the edges of the muscles, harder to make it look like it's a sloping, curving shoulder rather than just a different depth. My one defense, although it's an excuse really, is that while I'm making progress with my shading, it's often obscured by my scanner making the drawings look funny. The simple solution is to remember that when I'm doing the drawing, but somehow it never seems to quite work. So yes, I need to use more distinctive colours in my shading, and work on showing off those horsey muscles! Thanks Hawse! ^_^

You are very welcome, and yes, scanners just slaughter artwork, badly. When I visited mrminos he showed me his artwork (we allways do art when I visit there, it's fun! Art, steaks and BEER!) and they look MUCH better in person than they do scanned. same with my own crappy stuff, they scan very poorly. They photograph better though! I might start just using my digicam to 'scan' my artwork anymore since it just does such a better job of representing the image.

And yup, shading is.. not easy. One of the media that I REALLY REALLY like is soft pastels, because they blend SUPER nicely and allow me to shade really well.

I should try using my digital camera instead of a scanner. I find lighting always a problem with that, though. I never seem to quite know how to make it right.

I have considered giving soft pastels a go for a while now. The trouble is that I'm very good at accumulating various art materials around, but never really using them enough to justify the expense. So I've forced myself to learn how to use my set of Derwent watercolour pencils before moving on to something else. And everytime I get something else out of them, so it's a lesson worth learning. But someday when I'm really rich (yeah right!) I'll get all the art supplies I can possibly think of and revel in my artiness... ^_^

LOL! At one point in my life I had an excess of money. and let me tell you, I spent a LOT of money on exactly that. I have lots an dlots and lots of art supplies, but sadly, not a lot of time to use them these days. I will though, they are all durable and store well. :) The ones that weren't, I've given away to others who can and do use them.
mostly though, pencils, water color pencils, pastels, papers, pastel pencils. woot! I are art supply happiness! which is why , when you look through my gallery, you will see a lot of different materials and styles used.

Lucky you! *is jealous now*

Don't be jealous, I paid for it in blood.

I hope not literally... O_o

sadly, literally.

Did you get paid to donate blood?

LOL! It's a long sad story. The upshot though, is that jealousy isn't a good thing, envy, however, means that youc an see you yourself will someday have those things too. And I'm sure you will. :)

I hope so. I'll work extra hard at..well work. ^_^

;)

Well done -- and without any reference, too!

Thanks!

He's got a lovely mane :D Kinda mohawk like

Maybe he is a rebellious punk-rocker Fjord?

That would explain the red tinge at the front :B It would be funny to see a crazy, completely punked out horse x3 rainbow mohawk, glowsticks and all haha

I'm sure I've seen one somewhere. No idea where, though.

Yeah me too, must be what summoned the image up so quickly...

Someone did a horse like that for Equine Xchange. Aniris, perhaps? No, it isn't hers, I just checked. Who could it be?

No idea... >.>

It's gonna bug me now...

Me too >.<

your temptation really paid off... beautiful hun...

V.

Thanks sweetie! My wallet is slowly recovering, too. ^_^

I just love art done on paper with texture to it! I'm glad you got the vellum this looks great.

I also agree with hawse, you seem to be improving with every image. :)

Thanks very much! It really was tough using paper with uneven colour and texture. But that just makes it more interesting, I think!

You really are making progress in your development in being a better artist. Fur, mane and the eyes are great. Again the head proportions are a little bit out of order again. But it is much better than on earlier projects of yours.

I like the new paper too. It works great for a horse like this with the color. Even if you have had do notice that the black paper has made you lazy ^^

And like I told you you will soon be able to draw without refs...here you go.

Congratulations^^

Can you please be more specific about the head proportions? I'm sometimes very blind when it comes to my own drawings.

Ok...I will try to put it in simple terms (don't forget...English is not my native language)

The front half of the head looks like the front half of a Thoroughbred and the other half like a drafter/pony head.
The front is to slim...tot enough volume for the rest of the body. Imagine you could take a straw and blow some air in the front half. Like a balloon. It would grow the same way...in every direction at the same time. That is what the front part of the head needs to do a little bit to fit more gentle to the rest of the body. Not much...just like 10-12 % at maximum. So it really isn't bad....just a tiny little variance in the proportions. ^^
In the way like the head is hold it also would be difficult to see both eyes like we do here on your drawing. Try to verify that by looking on similar pictures if you have some.

I hope I could make it possible for you to get the idea what I mean.

So long

Hidalgo

I do understand what you mean. I will have to work on that. I did worry when I sketched this drawing that the head was too "refined" for a Fjord and I tried to make it more drafty, but I agree with you that it still remains too fine. I'll work on the eyes, too. I think I've grown far too attached to the farther eye just being visible. I shall endeavour to study more horse pictures and do better in the future. ^_^

English isn't my native language either - but I'd say you're doing a great job! ^_^

Great^^ I am glad that you understand what I've meant. Refine was exactly the word I was looking for^^

And yes...you are right with your conclusion about the second eye. It is not much..but still...it is there^^ I am glad that I am able and allowed to criticizes your pictures without being nearly killed afterwards or get to here that the artist never does anything right about anatomy because he knows what he is doing. Sometimes it is frustrating. They ask for critics and when you give them what they want they get mad at you because you have something you don;t like about their picture.

May I ask (probably again) which language your native one is? And thank you for the compliment. But I think I am far away from doing a great job. I really have to improve much more...and that soon.

I'm Finnish, but I've now lived in England for 5 1/2 years, so I'm practically another native language to me. Hey, you can always criticize me! I'm the first to admit that I don't know what I'm doing, which is why I keep practicing and attempting to improve. And it's easier to improve if I know where I'm going wrong... ^_^ So yeah, go for it!

And you are doing fine, don't worry about it!

If I would just be a German who wants to stay in Germany my English ability would be more than enough for the rest of my life...but since I move to the states in 2010 I really need to get way better than I am right now. But thanks again for the compliment^^

Oh and there is one think you could bet your life on...I WILL keep criticize you if I see something I think you should know about.

Finnish... that is cool. I was once working with a Finnish girl who was working for a horse trainer in Sweden who sends his horses to our tour...^^ She was a pretty nice girl. Like most Scandinavian people are nice.

I can guarantee that as soon as you move there, you will pick it up very, very quickly! I was rubbish before I moved here, but now I've had a lot of practice. ^_^ How come you're moving to the States?

Finns have to be nice people, cos there's so few of us. You never know when you're only gonna meet one person in a day, so you don't want to be rude to them. Nah, I'm just kidding. ^_^

Why to the states? Because my wife is from there and the DoD will PCS her back to the states in 2010. And of course I will go with her. I am practicing every day on base or with friends here....I have to because they don't speak English^^ It has gotten much better in the last several years..

And you are right....there are not very many of you in that big country^^

Fair enough, that's a good reason. ^_^ And practice indeed makes perfect!

Amazing :D

Thanks! ^_^

I like the vellum too :). And amazing job (especially without a reference).

Hello white tiger! Omg, you turned into an icon!! *blushes*

Vellum looks great in real life too! ^_^

Well yeah! It's very worthy of it and I said I was a white tiger so why not have an icon of a white tiger? Though it could be confusing with my name.

Not really. Sphinxes are feline, although more lion. But who cares. Anyway, at the risk of sounding pretentious, I love your icon!

I love it too

^_^ We should get married and have babies!

LOL and make the men babysit.

Yeah! Brilliant plan! ^_^