Let's draw horse! (A totally newbish digital arts tutorial)

[Lady 55]

Hello there! I am Lady and I am new to drawing in general. I draw pretty colorful talking horses on my artsy arts tablet for six months now, and I've slowly been improving. I wanted to do this tutorial because I felt like people need a simple approach to arting and to draw a totally awesome sketch horse. I wanted to help the totally new people, and I hope this tutorial does. .3.

 

If you think your horse looks bad by the end of the tutorial DO NOT WORRY because the more you art the better you'll become in time. Trust me on this. I've spent a whole year drawing on paper before I asked for my drawing tablet. :3 IF you have a mouse, you can follow this tutorial too! I'll show you how to make your lines look neat, don't worry!~

 

The program I am using for this tutorial is paint.net, all though I use paint tool sai for my arting. This is for totally new people! So paint.net because it's free to download anyways. Paint.net is like paint tool sai and photoshop, but very simple and easy to use. It's a bit more advanced then MSpaint, but it's basically like MSpaint too but with layers! As you art more layers shall become your best friend. So make sure you use them a lot!

 

 http://www.getpaint.net/download.html <-Link to Paint.net's official download site.

 

 

Now let's get started! I am going to show you how you draw a pony head shot. Heads are bit easier to do because they need less circles. In order to draw a pony in general, you'll need to know how to draw either circles or really short ovals, and lines! Everybody knows how to draw those!

 

What I first do this fill the 'background' layer with either a dark color if your using a light color for your sketching, or a light color if your using a dark color for you sketches. This helps because you can see your lines better this way!

 

 

 

You don't need to use the same color, but I highly suggest to NOT use black or dark grey as a background color! You will not be able to see your lines well if you do. Trust me, I tired. :T If you use those colors and try to use a lighter color for the background, it'll become an eye sore and it'll hurt your eyes maybe, it happened to me.

 

Now that you got started with your background, you see the 'layers' box? Click the 'add a new layer' button in the layers box, it's the first one on my left!(<---Left) then it'll open a new layer, layer 2. In layer 2, start drawing a circle in the middle of the canvas using the pencil tool, (the tool that looks like a pencil).

 

 

You see? If you do your circles like this it's a good start! It doesn't need to be perfect! That circle is beautiful the way it is. X3

 

Now draw a line in the middle of that circle horizontally and vertically. 

 

Now, click the 'properties' button on the far right of the layers box, it's the last button there.(Right---->) Name the layer whatever you want, but go to 'opacity' and lower it. You lower it by using the little white tick and put it to below 100, this will fade the circle and any other lines you will do in that layer. Press 'OK' then make another layer.

 

It should look like this, for me, I placed the opacity on 79, but don't make it below 10 or you wouldn't be able to see it at all. You need to be able to see your pretty circle after all!

 

 

Ok, now we'll start sketching the pony! I'll be using my main mlp OC Possessed for this tutorial, but you can draw any mlp OC you want or even a character from the show if you like!

 

I usually start with the ears first. So let's draw an ear! Make your pencil a different color(I'll be using black) and let's go sketch us an ear! Ears on mlp ponies look like footballs, at least half of a football. I started from the right side of the circle(-->Right!) and I went left(<---Left!) when I drew the ear. I stopped the ear somewhat into the circle, but not far. I then made an outline of the head of the pony until I reach the right side of the circle then I stopped.

 

 

See? Looking good so far! Now let's draw a muzzle! Muzzles for stallions and mares are so different, huh? For stallions, a muzzle that looks like a rectangle is needed, but for a mare, they need to look like a bean. Since my OC is a mare, I will be drawing a mare's muzzle. :3

 

 

Now we shall draw the neck! For a headshot, it's fairly easy to do it. X3

Once we draw the neck we'll focus on the facial features, like eyes and the ear!

 

Now for the eyes, the show draws them like ovals, and they cover most of the head. I draw my eyes in circles slightly away from the head, it's easier for ME that way. XD

 

 

 

Now, that you got your basic pony reference done! You know the layer where you got your circle done? Click the blue check in the layers box, then the circle does a Houdini! Poof! Gone!

 

Now this is the most super special awesome important part... 

 

Make your OC! Draw whatever you want! Make it an alicorn with sparkly rainbows! Or PinkiePie! Whatever! XD

 

 

This is my first tutorial, so I hope you like it! :3 I drew everything myself, and this is how I draw ponies. If you need more help with paint.net or drawing ponies in general, here are a few paint.net tutorials that helped me out a lot!

 

http://demonedaway.deviantart.com/art/Paint-NET-Lineart-Tutorial-101163734

http://viciousveggie.deviantart.com/art/Paint-Net-Tutorial-Coloring-130684137

http://vetrina-271.deviantart.com/art/Shading-Tutorial-for-Paint-NET-80077804

 

These are the pony tutorials that helped me out too!

http://wicklesmack.deviantart.com/art/Basic-MLP-Body-Part-Tutorial-308028875

http://imgs.steps.dragoart.com/how-to-draw-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-style-step-8_1_000000054311_5.jpg

http://tri-engine.deviantart.com/art/My-little-Pony-Tutorial-351853767

http://wolframclaws.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-How-to-Draw-Ponies-377256493

 

Please tell me how I did on this tutorial, and I hope it helps you out! Also, if you followed my tutorial show me the pretty horse you drew below pretty please. o3o

 

I regret nothing!

[Espurr 449]

Thank you so much. I can't draw a pony at all. This helped me out so much. Now I can finally add art to my stories that I put online. Thank you. You don't know how much this makes me happy!

[Lady 55]

@,

You welcome! X3

I'm glad it helped you out!