I'm back - with another drawing! :)

[JuniorxMyxLove]

I feel bad...it seems like I'm never on PT anymore Not by choice, life's just been taking me for a ride lately, lol.

Anyways...I'm home for Christmas break (YAY!) and got a new sketchbook at my newspaper staff's Secret Santa exchange...so I've been drawing a bit.

Okay, more than a bit.

I've drawn a lot lately.

I don't remember what the last art I shared with you was so I'll just show you guys my latest drawing. PLEASE critique if you see anything wrong! I don't start my first art class until the end of January, so I'm still all on my own lol.



I started that last week when I was home due to a migraine...thought maybe drawing would take my mind of things [it didn't]. I drew this lying in bed with a heating pad on my neck, lol. The reference photo was one on my Blackberry, and it was all done with a 3B pencil because the rest rolled off the bed.

I'm not quite sure why the eye is SOSOSOSOSOSO dark...

Comments? Critiques? If you're in the mood to critique really in depth and want to see the reference photo, PM me because it's not mine so I don't want to be posting it on the open forum.

I briefly considered giving this to my trainer as a Christmas gift since it's her horse but it's not very good so I don't think I will, haha.

[Karen]

Actually, you should give it to your trainer, it's very nice. You've come a long way, if you compared this to your horse drawing from before. And the eye's so dark BECAUSE all you had was a 3B - that's a pretty soft lead, so is very dark. If you do add a little background (can be vaguely hinted, and give it as a gift, be sure too spray it with fixative - because 3b is so soft, it'll rub off easily.

It isn't perfect (you and know the artists sees things in his or her drawing that others never will notice) but I bet she will think it is!

[JuniorxMyxLove]

aww, thanks

When I was doing it, I didn't realize the eye was so much darker than everything else, haha. I had a bit of a moment when I looked back at it later.

I feel like the rest of it is kind of a blah-y grey...agree? I need to find somewhere to put darker tones to kind of counteract the I, I think.

You're the second person to mention fixative to me - I'd never heard of it before my grandpa told me about it a few weeks ago. He was really pushing me to get fixative, and both kinds so I'm pretty sure I'll be getting some as a Christmas present from my grandparents, lol. If not...I'll run up to Michaels next week and see what they have. I'm giving another girl at the barn a picture of her pony for her birthday present [which I'm not happy with but she loves it] and I noticed already it's getting a little smudgy so I'll have to spray that too.

Woops, I ramble!

[Karen]

I'd some dark tones inside the nostril and the ear. And darken the shadows underneath the head and neck some, that'll make it look like he's being lit from above, give it a bit more depth, and it'll balance the darkness of the eye.

Until you"fix" it, you can protect it from smudging by covering it with tissue paper so nothing rubs off. If you're framing it, the glass will protect it, but if you roll it, definitely use the tissue paper.

And just sketching lightly in a landscape in the distance, or a fence and barn, just lightly, will keep it from looking so blank!

[JuniorxMyxLove]

Yeah the picture was taken with flash from a few feet away so all the tones that *should* be dark...aren't. I'm bad at straying from the picture to make it look better, hehe.

Right now I just have my sketchbook open to that page, uncovered, sitting on top of a dresser so none of the cats get at it, lol. I will have to find some tissue paper, though.

That's a good idea...he's poking his head out of a stall in the picture so I'll just draw that lightly in behind him. I hate backgrounds...I'm always afraid I'll mess it up and ruin the picture.

[JuniorxMyxLove]

At about 2AM when I finally realized I wasn't going to be sleeping...I thought it would be a good idea to try and fix this.

I really need to start locking away the pencils at night, haha. Nothing good ever comes from my late night/early morning attempts at drawing.

Basically...I found my little stub of a 6B pencil [I need to not use it on every single drawing for every single thing] and...

I didn't really darken any one part, I just kind of made the whole thing a little darker. The eye still looks messed up but I don't have a good eraser and would just smudge the eye around if I tried to erase it. I dunno WHAT I was thinking with the little bit of mane sticking in there...and the face is still too thick [for the horse it's supposed to be].