Chapter 1 | THE HORSE JUMP
Exercise 1: You may have drawn horses before, but if not, you can familiarize yourself with the shape and postures of a horse from the side in just a few steps.
Step 1: Draw this ‘model horse’ from the side (facing left or right). Start with the large square (for example 15 x 15 centimeters) and an assisting line through the middle (dotted or red here).
Tip: You can also download and print out images so that you already have a model horse to work with.
Step 2: trace your model horse on slightly thicker drawing paper (see the lesson Handy drawing tips chapter 5, level 1) so that you can keep the original.
Step 3: cut the copy of your model horse into separate parts, in those places where the horse can move (image) and put the loose pieces on new piece of paper in a position that you like, for example a prancing horse.
Step 4: Carefully trace the outline of the horse in the position you’ve chosen and connect the loose parts as neatly as possible..
Exercise 2: In the next image a horse jump is shown. The skeleton is still visible in the take-off. The three red lines indicate the height of the breast during the jump. Try drawing one of these poses with or without the help of the loose pieces from the previous step. And now comes the part: make the horse jump over something: a wall, houses, cars, ditches, chasms and so on. Of course you can give your horse a rider!
Some of us like to draw dangerous things, in this case very unpleasant for the horse. Fortunately, the horse is very strong and can still just say “AUCH!”. So he will be fine. The rider shouts all kinds of things, but of course he is not capable to ride at all. The wall is starting to give way due to the shock; there are already cracks in it and pieces of stone are loosening on the other side. The horse’s posture is very well drawn.
To prevent such a collision, you can also give your horse wings like the horse Pegasus from Greek mythology. Learn more about mythical creatures in the lesson Animals, chapter 1, level 3.
