Drawing a Horse with an Umber Underdrawing is the third post in a tutorial series. The first post showed you how to draw a digital grid on a reference photo. The second post described how to draw the horse using a grid.
This is a continuation of the same horse portrait I used for the first two posts. I’ll provide links to previous posts in every new post, so you can read them in sequence or review past posts.
Now let’s get to the step-by-step!
Drawing a Horse with an Umber Underdrawing
This is my finished line drawing. After receiving client approval, it was time to start drawing!
The paper is Clairefontaine Pastelmat in White. I’m using Prismacolor Verithin Dark Brown for most of the work. I did start with Faber-Castell Polychromos, but will tell you about that in a minute.
Transferring the Line Drawing
I transferred the drawing by shading the back of the line drawing with PITT Pastel 180 Raw Umber. Then I taped the drawing to the Pastelmat and traced the drawing with a ball point pen.
This is a great way to transfer line drawings to Pastelmat. But you may want to tap the line drawing after applying the PITT pastel to knock off excess pastel dust. Otherwise, the dust will end up on the Pastelmat. That’s what those marks are around the chin. I tried lifting them with mounting putty, but with minimal success
After the line drawing was fully transferred, I went over it again with Polychromos Walnut Brown. This makes the line drawing more permanent and less likely to smear.
Step 1
As mentioned above, I started doing the umber underdrawing with Polychromos Walnut Brown. My thinking was that would be the best pencil and best color, and it worked on the larger areas. I used light pressure to block in the darkest values inside the ears, inside the nostril and the eye. I also added darker middle values by glazing with the side of the pencil. Strokes varied from one area to the next.
But I found details in the high contrast reference photo that weren’t visible or obvious in the regular reference photo. The Polychromos pencil was too large to do draw those details. So I switched to Verithin Dark Brown. I lifted color with transparent tape and carefully redrew parts of the halter using light pressure.
I also added details to the mane and forelock, and refined the shape of the eye and the highlight in the eye. Overall, it was much more satisfactory than the Polychromos.
But when I started work on the background, I went back to Polychromos Walnut Brown, which I applied in vertical hatching strokes with light pressure. I did all of the background except in the areas where the values between the horse and background were too close. It seemed smarter to leave those areas white and fill them in later, rather than risk losing the edge and having to redraw it.
I kept my pencils sharp for most of this. The Verithin pencil wore down to wood more quickly, so I had to sharpen it more often.
Step 2
I did another layer of Walnut Brown over the background, this time with horizontal hatching strokes. I worked on the background, because I didn’t feel alert enough to work on the horse.
There are times when it’s best to work on an area of your drawing where mistakes won’t matter so much. Since my plan is for a black or very dark brown background, it will be easy to cover over mistakes here than in the horse.
Besides, this kind of work must be done when I use white paper, so the time was well spent.
Next, I blended the background with a paper stump.
Step 3
I continued working on the umber underdrawing by lightly glazing Verithin Dark Brown over the middle values of the horse. That included the shadows in the mane, where the overall values are lighter. There isn’t much variation in this area due to the lighting, so I kept the values light.
Then I layered Verithin Dark Brown over all of the background with scumbling and hatching strokes. When I finished, I darkened the shadows inside the halter straps. Then I started another layer on the background in the upper right hand corner.
I sharpened the pencil whenever the pigment core wore down to the wood. As I drew, I turned the pencil in my fingers. That helped keep the point sharp and that saved sharpening until I absolutely had to sharpen. More color on the paper; less in the sharpener! That’s always good!
I also used light or medium-light pressure, because I want to build up rich, dark color layer by layer.
Step 4
I continued working on the background, adding more Verithin Dark Brown, but changing the direction of the stroke with each layer (a method called crosshatching). This helped fill in the tooth of the paper. Each layer also made the background a little bit darker.
I also started doing more detailed work on the muzzle. I was more careful in how I made marks on the paper in this area. There is a lot of detail, but for now, I wanted to establish the main shapes and values.
I kept the pencil sharp and used medium pressure, which is about the same as light pressure with a softer pencil.
Step 5
First I added two or three more layers of Verithin Dark Umber over the background. I used medium-light pressure to apply hatching or crosshatching strokes.
Then I worked a little bit on the halter strap hanging down from the buckle near the eye. I hadn’t done anything with that so far, and wanted to at least put some color into that.
Then I tinkered with the mane and forelock. For both areas, I used directional strokes following the hair patterns.
I sharpened the pencil as needed and used medium-light to medium pressure throughout.
Step 6
I continued working with Verithin Dark Brown, but worked almost entirely on the horse. I did a little bit of work on the background in some areas, but only to adjust edges.
For the most part, I enlarged the reference photo and worked from one area to the next, drawing values and indicating hair patterns. I used light pressure and kept the pencil sharp.
When necessary, I used transparent tape to remove color and redraw areas. For example, I did this with the eye, the headstall, and the forelock where it falls over the top of the head. I enjoyed working this way because it’s so easy to make adjustments and corrections. It’s one of the many benefits of drawing on Pastelmat, especially with Verithin pencils.
NOTE: No matter how carefully I make a line drawing, there are always adjustments to be made along the way. That’s why it’s so important to work slowly and carefully study the reference photo at every step.
Step 7
I started working on the ears after enlarging the reference photo so it showed only the ears. My intention was to finish them as much as possible.
But after a little bit of work, I decided to darken the background instead, and layered Verithin Dark Brown over almost all of it at least once. I darkened the area between the ears, in the corners, and along the edges with several layers. This helped frame the horse a little more and also “closed in” some of the space the background seems to take up.
That also helped me reshape the ears a little bit by adjusting the outside edges before shading the insides more completely.
I’m also finding that I like the composition with the background and shoulder fading one into the other. That decision helps keep the focus on the face while still allowing me to draw the neck and part of the shoulder. I used scumbling strokes and light to medium-light pressure to fade the Dark Brown into the color of the paper.
Step 8
I started by working on the middle values on the neck. It was a good place to begin because there aren’t many real dark or real bright values there. I used a variety of strokes, but since I want to portray the horse with a sleek coat, I tried not to stroke in the direction of hair growth.
Then I worked around the face, particularly in the area between the ear and halter. I also adjusted the shape of the eye a little because it didn’t look quite round enough.
In the lower face, I realized that I’d missed shading the dark skin between the nostrils. I hadn’t even drawn the lower edge of that, so I worked on that. First I outlined it lightly with Verithin Dark Brown, then shaded it lightly, then added more layers to start creating the values. I also darkened the mouth.
In addition, I darkened the parts of the halter that either hadn’t been worked on very much or that needed to be darkened. For these areas, I stroked along the contour of the edges with medium pressure, using short strokes to draw and shape the curves.
I finished by adding several layers to the background.
I kept my pencil sharp and used only as much pressure as needed to apply color.
Step 9
I went back to the background with more layers of Eagle Verithin Sienna Brown. It’s a color very close to the more modern Dark Brown. I used this color because I’d worn my Dark Brown down to a useless nub and didn’t have a replacement handy.
I started with vertical hatching strokes along the vertical edges of the composition, then followed up with horizontal hatching strokes along the top and bottom edges.
After that, I filled in the lighter areas with layers of hatching and crosshatching strokes. I continued layering until the background values were as even as I wanted them to be.
Then I worked on the horse again, starting with the top of the neck next to the cheek. I enlarged the reference photograph to focus on that area, then worked from section to section, refining the values in the neck and shoulder, then the head.
I also used transparent tape to lift some color for the mane. It’s lighter than the neck beneath it, so I laid tape over the mane, then stroked on it with the pencil, hoping to lift “strands” of color. That didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, but it was helpful. I also lifted color along the back edge of the cheek.
Finally, I worked on the cheek and the jaw in front of it, then the jaw next to the mouth, then the mouth itself. I ended the session with some work between the eye and ear.
Lastly, I put a few strokes on the back of the eye ball itself to make it look rounder.
That finished the umber underdrawing. This is the portrait completed at this stage.
Drawing a Horse with an Umber Underdrawing
The entire process start to finish took a little over 7-1/2 hours, but was spread over four weeks. There were a lot of other drawing obligations during that time, so I worked on this whenever I could. Now that those obligations are behind me, this portrait is once again at the top of my drawing list.
You don’t have to use Verithin pencils for underdrawings or for your first layers if you don’t do underdrawings like this. But if you have them and you like drawing on Pastelmat, then I highly recommend doing as much work as possible with Verithin pencils. Despite the thinness and hardness of the pigment core, they’re as close to perfect a match for Pastelmat as I’ve found.
But since Polychromos are also dry and somewhat hard, and since they also work well on Pastelmat, I’m thinking that any dry, hard colored pencil will be a good fit for Pastelmat.
You’ll never know unless you try! That’s how I discovered Verithin worked so well on Pastelmat.
Previous Posts in This Series
Drawing a Digital Grid on a Reference Photo
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