As soon as the right reference photo was found, the work begins!
1 . Step 1: The sketch
I roughly sketch out the porportions of the horse but yet pay a lot of attention to the anatomy.
2 . Step 2: The shading
I work with Faber Castell pencils with different hardness grades from 2H to 8B. This helps a lot to make the horse look as authenticaly as possible. 2H is used for very light areas and 8B for very dark areas. By training my eye in the last four years, I learned which pencils to use for what kind of areas. It is not as complicated as it might sound!
3 . Step 3: The reworking phase
This is the final step. Important details are refined and I check whether any proportions are off or not. In some cases I decide to add a decent background to convey the impression that the horse is sticking out. Usually these three steps already sum up several hours. It pretty much depends on the complexity of the reference photo , the size of the drawing and the additional wishes of the customer.
