As I mentioned at the end of the previous post in this series, two of the more challenging parts of a horse for me to draw are the ears and the muzzle. In the previous post, we dealt with the ears. Today, I’ll show you how I draw a horse’s muzzle.
This is a complicated part of a horse because of the shapes around the mouth and nostril. Even the area between the nostrils is complex looking from certain angles.
How to Draw a Horse’s Muzzle
This portrait is on white Pastelmat, and I used Prismacolor Verithin, and Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils.
I worked this portrait through a total of four phases (umber underdrawing, Verithin color glaze, Polychromos color glaze, and detailing). I’ve already written about some of those phases elsewhere, and the links are at the bottom of this post. For those interested only in learning how to draw a horse’s muzzle, I’ll share enough detail here to explain what I did at each step. I will go into detail in the final phases.
Now, let’s get to the step-by-step.
The Umber Underdrawing
Step 1
When I started to draw the horse’s muzzle, I blocked in the main values with Faber-Castell Polychromos Walnut Brown. The lightest values were the color of the paper. For all the other values, I layered varying amounts of Walnut Brown. But I used light pressure for all the layers.
I blocked in most of the values with hatching and scumbling strokes. But I also did a little glazing with the side of the pencil.
Then, I switched to Prismacolor Verithin Dark Brown for the smaller areas. Dark Brown is a good color match for Walnut Brown.
I kept the pencil sharp and used medium pressure to add lighter values around the muzzle. Most of that was in the chestnut hair on the side of the muzzle. I also darkened the mouth, and added the darker skin between the nostrils. I outlined that shape first using very light pressure, then shaded it in.
Because so much of this horse’s muzzle is white or pink, there wasn’t a lot of underdrawing to do. I concentrated on the darkest values, using light pressure and sharp pencils for all of it.
Verithin Color Glaze
Step 2
I started glazing color with Verithin Goldenrod in the chestnut hair.
Then I worked in Spanish Orange and Pumpkin Orange, blending them with the Goldenrod by overlapping the colors.
In the gray patches in and a round the nostril, I used Cool Grey 70% in the darker values. For the lighter values, I used Warm Grey 20%.
Inside the nostril, I layered Indigo Blue and Dark Brown. I also layered White on the back edge of the nostril rim, where there is a highlight.
On the pink skin, I used Light Peach.
I also layered Dark Brown into some of the darker values in the chestnut, and added Indigo Blue in the darkest shadow along the lower jaw.
Because Verithin pencils layer so well and so easily on Pastelmat, I was able to use light pressure for all of this step. I also used mostly hatching and crosshatching strokes, because the hair is fairly short and without a lot of visual texture. As you can see, I worked around the highlights in the chestnut areas.
In the white and pink areas, the type of stroke didn’t matter as much. Those areas are smoother, and because the colors are lighter, it wasn’t as important to draw texture. I used whatever strokes produced nice, smooth color.
Polychromos Color Glaze
When the Verithin color glaze was complete, I switched back to Polychromos pencils.
This round of color glazing took quite a bit longer than the first round, so I’m breaking it up into a few additional steps for the sake of clarity.
Step 3
I started with a glaze of Burnt Siena, working around the blaze and the highlights using scumbling strokes.
Next, I added a few touches of Caput Mortuum Violet glazed into the shadows under the halter and the lower part of the face.
After that, I used Cream, which I applied with short, directional strokes following the texture of the hair. I didn’t bother sharpening the pencil because it was already fairly sharp. I worked over almost all of the hair that’s brown, except for the darkest brown shadows.
Next, I layered Cadmium Orange over most of the same area. I worked around some of the lighter areas, but layered Cadmium Orange into the shadows.
I then used Ivory to blend and soften the lightest colors. That worked adequately, but I found Ivory worked much better sketching out the reflected light highlights on the side of the muzzle just below the noseband. I used medium-light pressure and short directional strokes for that.
Then I glazed Terracotta over many of the same areas over which I glazed Cadmium Orange previously. That helped fill the tooth of the paper and smooth out the color.
Next, I switched to Cold Grey I, which I applied around the mouth and on the rim of the nostril. I used light pressure, but applied two or more layers. It wasn’t dark enough, but it provided a good base color and the edge of the upper light is lighter than the rest of the gray.
Lastly, I darkened some of the dark grays around the mouth and nostril with Cold Grey III and worked on the blaze with White. I used medium-light pressure for both colors. I added several layers, but the darker values still show through in some places.
Step 4
In this step of drawing the horse’s muzzle, I worked mostly on the pink skin, using a mix of Light Flesh, Medium Flesh, and Dark Flesh. Medium Flesh was a little too pink to be used alone and Dark Flesh wasn’t dark enough, so I replaced it with Burnt Ochre, which I used mostly in the shadows.
I alternated through the colors, changing the proportion of each color according to the colors and values I could see in the reference photo. I used medium-light pressure or a little heavier, and a mix of hatching and crosshatching strokes.
There is a lighter area along the edge of the lower lip. I tried Ivory in that area, but Ivory wasn’t quite light enough or bright enough. I don’t need a lot of brightness there, but need more than I could get with Ivory.
In the gray areas, I used Cold Grey IV to darken the shadows under the lip, in the mouth, and inside the nostril.
Step 5
I continued layering Medium Flesh and Burnt Ochre on the lower lip and end of the muzzle, adding layers to build up color and value and to fill in the tooth of the paper.
Then I used a mix of Ivory and White to lighten the light areas in the lower lip.
I darkened the mouth and inside the nostril with Black and Cold Grey IV, stroking slowly and carefully.
I used Cold Grey IV to darken the gray in the lower lip, reshaping the edges with Black and then going over them again with Cold Grey IV.
Step 6
Finally, I went over the lip, muzzle, nostril and mouth again, using all the same colors to add more layers. I reshaped the mouth and end of the muzzle after noticing that they weren’t accurate.
I also refined the marking and hair on the end of the muzzle with Cold Grey I, IV, and Black in the gray areas, and Burnt Siena, Terracotta, and Cadmium Orange in the brown areas. With the browns, I used medium-heavy pressure and short, almost striking strokes to duplicate the look of wiry hair there.
Then I did the same thing with White in the lip and pink parts of the muzzle.
I also used medium-heavy pressure and short, directional strokes in an attempt to make the blaze more white and show a bit of form.
Overall, the result was amazingly pleasing. The muzzle went from looking terrible and unfinishable to looking quite satisfactory and very much capable of being finished.
Detailing the Horse’s Muzzle
The last step in the drawing process is detailing. There wasn’t much detailing to do on the muzzle because there wasn’t much showing in the reference photo. The portrait is also small (8 x 10), so there wasn’t a lot of room for details.
I started out by working on the blaze. I chose Luminance White in an attempt to create the brighter white areas. That worked a little bit, but not as well as I’d hoped, so I next tried Derwent Drawing Chinese White.
I also used French Grey 50% and French Grey 20% to add shadows in the blaze. That almost helped more than the Whites.
For all of these colors, I used short, directional strokes following the direction of hair growth or the contours of the area. I used medium-heavy or heavy pressure.
I also adjusted the area around the mouth with French Grey 50% around the white edge above the mouth and Prismacolor Dark Brown beneath the mouth.
How to Draw a Horse’s Muzzle
Learning how to draw a horse’s muzzle can be a time-consuming project. I’ve been drawing or painting horses for years and still sometimes have difficulty drawing the shapes accurately. Every portrait is a learning process!
But in general, I hope I’ve helped you get better acquainted with the shapes and shading of a horse’s muzzle.
In the next post in this series, I’ll show you how I detail a drawing. This will be a more general post, covering all of the portrait. I hope you’ll join me.
Previous Posts in This Series
Drawing a Digital Grid on a Reference Photo
Draw a Horse with an Umber Underdrawing
Drawing a Horse with Verithin Glazing
Drawing Leather with Colored Pencils
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