Horses are hard to draw and easy to paint. The shape is the problem, and a numbered canvas has already solved the shape for you. What is left is color, and horses are mostly four or five colors doing a lot of work.
The six we carry
All of them live in Animals and Wildlife.
Tender Bond, Mother and Foal
A mare with her foal against her. The one people actually hang, because it is about the pair rather than the animal. Two bodies in overlapping brown means the regions are subtle, so go for 48 colors or the foal disappears into the mare.
Spring Horses
Several animals in a green field under open sky. Lighter in mood than the rest, and the easiest of the six: the background carries half the canvas and it is grass.
Purple Horse
Not a naturalistic animal. The horse is rendered in violet, magenta and blue, which makes this the kit to pick for a room where a brown horse would look like a hotel corridor. Also the most forgiving, since nobody can tell you the color is wrong.
Horse Trainer
A horse and the person handling it. There is a human face on this canvas, which changes the difficulty considerably. Take the largest size you have wall for.
Western Cowboy and Authentic Cowboy
Two takes on the rider rather than the horse. Dust, leather and low sun, so the palette is narrow and warm. Between the two, the first is the wider scene and the second is closer in.
Lifelong Lovers
Two horses with their heads together. The classic of the genre, and the one most often bought as a gift.
Painting a coat so it looks like a coat
The mistake is treating each region as a separate patch of brown. A horse reads as a horse because light runs down its flank in one continuous fall, so paint the light regions across the whole body first, then the mid tones, then the darks. Working color by color rather than area by area keeps the fall of light consistent, and it is faster because you are not washing the brush every thirty seconds.
Manes take the fine brush and patience. Go in the direction the hair falls, and do them after the body is dry.
The horse you already know
The stock canvases are anonymous animals. If there is a specific horse, a photograph of it goes through the custom kit page and comes back as a numbered canvas with the paints mixed to that coat. Photograph in side light rather than midday sun, fill the frame with the head and shoulders, and take 16x20 inches at $24.95 or larger. The same approach that works for dogs and cats works here, and we set it out in detail in the pet portrait guide.
Sizes and what they cost
Horses need room. 12x12 inches at $19.95 crops badly around a standing animal. 16x20 at $24.95 is the sensible floor, 20x26 at $29.95 for the pair canvases. On the 12x12 canvas, 24 colors is the $19.95 base, 36 colors comes to $26.95 and 48 colors to $34.95. The option is priced per canvas size, so check the figure on the product page for the size you pick.
Every kit ships with the canvas, numbered acrylics, three brushes and a reference print. Free shipping to the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia and New Zealand. Thirty days to return it for a full refund if it is not right.
