[WIP] Back into grayscale :3

So...being stuck in my family house for Christmas with...not really the best quality laptop as my companion (and no way to finish commissions), made me back to my very old sketchces, ideas and, generally, things I once left unfinished (and it' wasn't really a surprise for me to see how many drawings are left, I got used to see my abandoned things waiting eternity for being finished and/or redrawn).

I came across one of them and, because I've been really bored (and also because of recent tag recolors I recalled how awesome grayscale really is xd), yesterday I started (once again) this boy (only head and neck I consider as finished here):



Lol.
I really don't remember being so excited with any of drawings I did recently, I can't wait to play with colors on it, I love the pose (which it's really hard to draw, I spent several hours on re-drawing legs and I still need to fix some parts, especially right front leg ;-;).

Sometimes it's good to draw something just for yourself.

Ooooooo I am loving this so far! I love how you shade ♥

That's very realistic! What program did you use? c:

Thanks!

This one was made with GIMP 2.8.
I use both Krita and Gimp, although Krita won't run on my laptop (needs too much RAM ;/).

Those overflexions tho XD

But seriously, shading is the bane of my existence. You do such a great job!

Which parts do you think are overflexed? :>
Left front actually carries all horse's weight at this moment and yet not pushing away ;)
And neck...well, drawing is just like taking a photo at this point, horses sometimes do weird things with their body in motion (especially stallions) which lasts less than a second and are captured ;)
If I ever plan to put a rider on his back I wouldn't draw it like that :)

Yes, the LF does carry all the weight on touchdown, but they don't flex QUITE so much. It would still be a tad more upright. That's what I was talking about.

I've come to really hate the phrase "moments in time" because it's mostly just used nowadays to defend bad riders who abuse their incorrectly trained horses.

Actually, I must say that...it depends. I have seen some horses that had so flexible pasterns that their fetlocks were leaving second "hoofprint" right behind hoof (thoroughbreds mostly ;)) while trotting/cantering. I'm not gonna argue about that (that would be quite silly xd), it's only a sketch right now :)

I hardly ever use refs and if I do, they're rarely horses with riders when I don't want to put a rider on its back (and about those I'm extremaly picky 'cause I've been riding on not really bad level). 
But, to be honest...I've seen tons of photos that just have been taken in bad moment or from wrong perspective, horses that have been scared of something while being ridden (or disobedient and it really wasn't rider's fault, some horses are just...more special than others) that I don't judge riders only by looking at one or two photos...especially when they weren't the ones who shared them ;)

Its beautiful!!! Your very good!!!

For sure some individuals CAN have, for lack of a better word, 'looser' tendons and ligaments that can allow for that. I haven't seen it too often, but I have seen it sometimes even if it's not very commonplace.

In my experience, there is a difference between a horse being a butthead or spooking at something and one that is being ridden improperly. I don't generally judge by a single photograph... but when you see chains of photographs with horses practically eating their own chests along with videos of the same ride and it's all the same and people still try to use that phrase to justify the images... that's another ball park (I literally cannot watch dressage tests anymore because everything is so bad it makes me nauseous XD).

I prefer riderless images anyway. Nothing more beautiful than a loose horse.

Well...I've been searching through many photos of bucking, rearing, playing, cantering, galloping, trotting horses in my life and really it's more common thing than people expect, especially when horse is moving with huge expression. But, what can I say, I'm not really a horse expert, not even close to that :).

There's a different, indeed. I'm just not a person who is judging without seeing at least a film with horse and rider's everyday work at home and a few words about their history (how long do they train together, what problems do they face and so on). I also remember that I've been a beginner once too...and at some levels of being a noob at horse riding there's no way to talk about any training for the horse - no matter how did my trainers try, I know that sometimes horses felt pain because of my lack of balance, which is totally natural thing when your body yet feels horse riding unnatural. I don;t consider myself as a lame rider but also I'm not a top rider so I just don't feel like I have enough exprience to judge someone who's better than I will ever be (I don't even dream to reach GP level ever in my life).
I'm against animal abuse and it may sound weird, but, for me, there's more abuse in natural horsemanship than in top level dressage (I've seen tons of good work by dressage riders, but totally none by natural riders...), especially when horses ridden classical way (in all disciplines) aren't perfectly built (for example low quality back (can't find a suitable word for it in English) will never look good at photos) and faces many problems with uplifting, moving their balance on hind legs and hindquarters...and yet the horses moves properly, from hindquarters through back to their front, the rider is not fighting with a horse and the horse looks like they enjoys exercises.
Not telling about horses that were bouhgt with some issues caused by someone else's way of "riding" - seriously, if someone would ever made photos of me and mare I had a pleasure to ride for few years, they would be signed as "that's how you should never ride a horse" :).
The point is...mare was so testy in mouth that every attempt of shorten the reins a little ended as a total disaster, she was raising her head up, folding down her back and moving back (I wasn't even close to contact, lol). Just no one has ever taught her how to work with a bit - horse was afraid of it 'cause she didn't know what she should expect. That combo, combined with total lack of balance, and flexibility, and also seeing fears totally everywhere, made first year of our partnership survival instead of training. Bless my trainer that she helped me a lot that time.

To be honest, I don't feel like this is good place to talk about horse riding and training, I just wrote that, for me, drawing is like taking photos at some points...but also I'm open to continue this discussion in private messages or another forum in more suitable thread :).


Here's a little update:

I just have started mane. some parts still need a few changes though.

Final version

Last edited on 2018-05-16 at 06:33:11 by Royal Storm