How To Draw A Horse: A Step By Step Guide
It’s time to quit stalling and admit that you really have no idea how to draw a horse. Like, if you were at a Macaroni Grill right now sitting across the table from a horse and you guys both agreed to draw each other (because you guys decided to eat at a great restaurant with paper tablecloths)…you wouldn’t know where to start. And let’s be honest, your horse friend would probably be offended by what you *did* draw. So, let’s prevent that situation from even happening by going through this very handy and stable tutorial with me.
1. First, let’s look at a (real!) horse. Study the shape of each body part and how the legs bend.
2. Now, we start with the head. Get a little circle going. This will later turn into the area where your eyes are.
3. Next, we draw the nose, which is more of a cylindrical shape.
4. Now comes the neck which is a little bit like a kidney bean.
5. The chest connects to the neck and it is a bigger circle than the first circle we made.
6. Draw that nice rounded parallelogram torso.
7. Look at that butt! Guess what shape that is…
8. And just to throw you off, I drew a different shape for the top of the leg. Fun fact: I don’t know how to square dance.
9. Next up, I’m drawing leg joints, which are just smaller circles placed strategically where the leg is bending.
10. Right before our hoof, comes the, um, pre-hoof? No idea what it’s called but it is a triangular shape right above the hoof.
11. Now you can throw your hoof in at the bottom there!
12. Connect those leg joints!
13. Repeat that process with the other front leg.
14. Next, we got our hind legs. I made the top of my hind leg look like a guitar pick.
15. Get that hind leg joint in there! Another small circle.
16. Another hind leg joint.
17. Time for that lil’ hoof at the bottom.
18. After that, I connected the “dots” and added some dimension to the bottom of my hoof using a small oval.
19. Ok, repeat steps 15-18 for the other hind leg.
20. Keep your eye on the prize. Next up is our eyeball.
21. Add another small circle towards the bottom of our nose bridge. This will later become our nostril.
22. Get that mouth in there! The top of the mouth is always bigger in proportion to the bottom.
23. Those cute little horse ears are next. They kind of look like mini rabbit ears.
24. Next, let’s roughly sketch our hair lines (where the hair lands and falls).
25. Now it’s time to do some sweating while we ink this baby! Beginning with the head we’re going to outline our rough lines (in purple and pink). I’ve taken some small liberties and drew some curves where the eyebrow and teeth should be. Lastly, I added another curve where the jaw begins. And don’t forget the eyelids and nostril curve!
26. Ink the neck. Pretty simple.
27. Inking the top of the chest is also pretty simple.
28. Next up is the front leg. Remember that those joints get pretty bumpy, so feel free to get…bumpy.
29. Inking that other front leg should be a similar process.
30. Let’s do some nice and fun swooping with those torso lines. Horse bodies are pretty smooth and swoop-y when you think about it. Am I great with words or what?
31. Next up are those butt cheek lines, which also happen to be your back-of-the-hind-leg lines, but that’s not as snappy to say, is it?
32. Inking those hind legs should be a breeze now, Mr. Bumpy McBumperson!
33. Ok wow, next is the hair. Hope you didn’t fudge that up.
34. After that, I made some “muscle” lines wherever I saw fit (pun intended).
35. To add dimension to my image, I’m gonna go ahead and add a background, so here’s my “grass”. Looks terrible, I love it.
36. Oh yea, and clouds? Since we’re outside and all.
37. Almost to the last step. Clean up those pesky rough lines we started out with!
38. Color, color, color. Phew, we did it! We’re finally done.