The Art of Natural Dressage

Actually, I was positively surprised to find an AND Art thread...but I never thought about opening a thread, because I didn t draw anything in connection with horses. But now I started to and I will start to share.

Actually, I was wondering, if I should show something here. It is easier not to, in a way. But here are very interesting people collected, and there might develope an interesting exchange. And also since my diary helps me a lot, to go on, on my way and get things clearer, I thought, I could give it a try as well, concerning my drawings. And may be I can inspire others.

First of all: I love drawings.

I once had a wonderful georgian artist as a teacher and he imprinted me forever...

I love to see drawings and to create them myself. I love to reflect about compositions and lines, about colours and paper.

I mostly love drawings, that are somehow odd, not clean, not perfect, but alive and maybe brave. I love them searching, maybe even wild, and still sensitive. I sometimes also love them in a way light and minimalistic. They should search for something essential, something special. I also want them to play with the border of being figurative and abstract. I want them to play with the border of being finished. I want them to play with the emptiness around the objects. I also want to hit the point with very little efforts. I have still to learn a lot. I love the process of doing it, because it is very sensitive. I have myself to embody all these attributes (well, nearly impossible...) in the moment of creating. I also love the moments afterwards, looking at them and getting a relation to them. I can learn so much from it. All in all it is a wonderful process to be in. Sometimes I keep forgetting this. Then all days life distracts me and I dont draw anything...

Since I am still in a very searching phase, concerning the horses, the drawing mostly do not fullfill my approaches, yet. I say that, in case you might wonder, what I am up to... I try to find my way. This means, I still have loads to explore. But of course, horses are my passion, and I want to make my way through this subject. Before the urge of drawing horses, I always came back to scetch human bodys and here different themes. For example, I had a phase, where I loved to draw feet like crazy. Then I did hands, then backs and torsos and then movements. Rarely faces, I have to admit. With horses, I cant avoid faces really. I will show you my first horse trials. It is difficult for me, to really show their power or strength and their beauty. And I am still far, from getting into abstraction.

Well, let s see, where this thread leads to....



The first one is the most decorative...:





This one is quite wild. It might seem unfinished. I love it like that:





...:





There, the front horse is not the way, I like it, yet. I am gonna work on it:





Wonder, why I don t draw the legs? Well, first of all, it s a question of composition. Second reason, you find in the next picture... I swear, I m gonna train it...



This poor foal has one longer foreleg... But with this technique, I can t repair it... I still like the rest:





At the moment, I draw from pictures. But I also want to do it life. Well, my life attempts look developable :





So that is it first of all... Thanks for watching...

Those are really wonderful, Dani! I especially like the first one and the one from the back
I really love your sketchy way of drawing. Hoping for more

_________________
Volker

The horse owes us nothing.

Thank you Volker

Just the fact, that the thread exists, already makes me want to go home immediately and draw more.
So there will be more for shure.

Now, I am inspired, to go on. And I want to share the process.

This weekend, I started to train to draw horses heads. But I didn t get one, that I liked completely. So I started to cut out parts, that I liked. This is, how I function. In this phase, I am searching for inspiration, for lines or surfaces, that interest me. I collect them and think about them. To scan them and make them huge is a nice way, to see, what I did..

Those pictures are just intuitive. That means, I just drawed approximately, without caring for the anatomy behind it. I will soon have to study the anatomy of the horses heads, bones and muscles, to get really skilled in drawing these. Lines and surfaces have to become more reasonable... Afterwards I will move on to draw really freely. Today, while smooching with Zermi, I already had a close look at everything. He is so damn beautiful, like all the horses are. I want to become really good, to grasp that.

Here some cuttings:

I like the ears, and the eye and also the outer line of the left eye


It seems to me very horsish, though the nostril could be much much better...


This is a cutout of a picture, in which I like, that the head is just a foreshadow...Maybe I have to mention, that the horse is pair grooming.


Here, I like the simplicity. I just see, that it looks green, though in reality it is (lightly-)greenish-grey. The pony had too much grass, I guess...


The face of the foal also gives me an idea, how to proceed.


This one I don t like so much, the eye looks empty and at the wrong place and other things are wrong as well. But I like the outer line and some games of light and shades.


Without the eyepart, it looks much more harmonious...


Here I like the composition, I know it is edgy...


I like it, it is in a way naive and simple and completely "wrong"..., but so much Lusitano...



Let s see, how it goes on...

I like the sixth pic very much! For me it looks perfectly. The best of your series in my opinion (along with the fourth one). All in all: very good studies!

I love them all, each one for a different reason. In general, I love how your drawing looks so light and experimental, and how it incorporates the surface structure of the material you are drawing on.

After having been inspired so much by all these different drawing styles of different people, I already know what my next project will be: Drawing one and the same picture several times, but in one version I will try to draw like you, in another one like Nora, then like Nelly, like Lena, like Kirsten, and so on. This will be so much fun and such a challenge! Maybe I can talk the girls into doing it together with me.

Oh, thank you Lena and Romy....


Haha, that is funny. As soon, as I read this, I thought, yeah, well it is not as bad, as I thought before.... Very funny, how the mind works.


That is a nice idea for a study. You will learn a lot from it. Maybe, I will take part in this experiment (though I am far away, it should be possible...).

I will go and stray around your drawing threads tonight, girls...I allready saw very interesting stuff in all of them...

Oh, drawing and horses, so much fun...

Now I get seriously into the horse drawing....
I did some studies the last week. Really "serious" drawings about anatomic details.
But my scanner didn t work the subtle way, I wanted him to. The studies need to be scanned by a scanner that reproduces every little detail.
In long terms, I will have to get a new one I guess, because scanning is an important part of working to me. Any tipps about good scanners, that are not too expensive?

I have no suggestions for scanners (I always make simple photos with my low quality digital camera), but I want to see the pictures! Personally I don't mind if the photo quality isn't optimal, I'd rather miss a few lines than your drawings as a whole.

I will bring them tomorrow...poorly scanned...

I know, I am so gravely accurate, concerning this stuff...
Here are two examples. They are not quite as they look in the originals. This is the best scan quality, I could get up til now and it took me some hours... . In the originals, the contrasts are a bit more intense and the lines are more articulated. I am not good concerning editing, but I am learning constantly... I will post some others later.
In the scetches, I can see many things, that I would do differently next time. For example the mouth is a bit too near to the nostril, and the hoof is too cleanly round. I also have the tendency, to form the body, by illustrating everywhere the same amount of light. What I want to say is, that I tend to ignore the natural light and shade, that strikes the object. Once, I got the anatomy more clearly, I will spend some time with this theme.



The following picture is cut out of a paper with many trials of different parts of horses body

Some mouth region trials
The first one is also up there, but I want to have it in this row of mouthes...









Generally, I realize, that I still have a lot to think, while drawing horses. I want to come to the point, at which it becomes more natural. This is the point, where my pencil can go "wild", no matter, where I am and this is huge fun then... Now, it is still a kind of "work", to get the proportions right and understand the constructions. But I keep going. Practising is the only thing that helps...

Actually, it is interesting, to see the drawings here, cause I can see better, what I want to change....