With grateful thanks to John Tyrell for allowing me to use his image for my first horse portrait from photo - visit www.bigtimemedia.co.uk to see more of his work and for more information.
With great trepidation I am hoping to use this image for my first piece as a horse portrait artist. The horse is called Roli and doesn't he look stunning, I absolutely love this image and I am not really a horse fan but I think this one would win me over.
Work has began on the horse portrait from photo. As you can see I have worked in layers putting down the lighter colours first and then going over each area with progressively darker shades building up depth. I do area by area rather than laying each colour down all over the portrait, this helps me see I'm on the right track for final colours and shape of the subject. I have also made a start on the bridle, which is the first time I have ever really studied one and it does seem to be very complicated!
Things have moved on at a steady rate of knots, I have got the basics of Roli's face down now and he is starting to look quite good. I have worked on the eye area and further down his nose. As this is my first work in progress horse portrait from photo, I'm really pleased with the results so far. Horse heads are very different from dog heads so this is a bit of a challenge but I am enjoying it. I'm a bit jealous of Roli's owners, he is such a beauty of a horse, I'm quite taken with him.... now do I have room in my garden for one!!!
I have worked further on this portrait completing the head in the main and by beginning to put in a background. In keeping with the original image, as a horse portrait artist I felt the original was just superb so needed no alterations and using black pastel and charcoal began shading around the head so I could see I was heading in the right direction. I had used a very pale pencil to highlight around the edge of Roli's face on the right side of the portrait and this only began showing up in contrast to the black background giving the portrait a more realistic quality.
I have completely added in the black pastel and charcoal background now. I used a fine charcoal pencil to outline the edge of the horse and then used a black pastel stick to fill in the surrounding areas. Already Roli looks pretty recognisable, now it's just the neck to do. I hope all horses are as pleasant to draw, I could become a horse portrait artist full time!!! I would imagine it has to do with the reference image being a lot better than I usually use.
I am already really pleased with Roli and it is one of my favourite pencil portraits from photos.
And this is the finished portrait, I'm really pleased with the finished piece, hopefully this will demonstrate that I am able to portray horses accurately from a reference image. I did enjoy doing this portrait, I think because it was a change from the norm.
Pencil Portraits from Photos Horse Portrait from Photo by Horse Portrait artist Karie-Ann Cooper 
