Pastel Pencil Horse

If you want to see how to draw a pastel pencil horse then here's just the thing to watch - it's a wonderful example by artist Mary Herbert.

As many of you know, I'm not a huge fan of speed videos as a teaching method, especially for beginners.

However, I saw this video on a member's page on I Draw and Paint and I thought the outcome was amazing.

Notice the value of being able to get fine detail with pastel pencils as well as broader sweeps of colour by spreading the roughly applied colour with a 1" flat brush and also your hand, protected by a rubber glove.

See how much pure blue is used for the initial shadow work on the left of the face and look out near the end at how the sheen of the coat is achieved superbly by the use of contrasting light and dark colour.

I hope you enjoyed this video - did you see how the artist used a Mahl Stick on which to rest her drawing arm to avoid smudging the relatively large picture?

Now it might take a fair amount of time and practice to reach that standard, but hopefully you'll be inspired to have a go yourself to see what you can achieve. It doesn't have to be a horse - it could be a simple flower or a couple of pieces of fruit to give you some experience of creating textures and shapes.

Give it a try sometime and see what you can achieve!

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