How to Draw a Horse Step by Step

The moment the word 'drawing' is uttered, it reminds us (at least me) of our school times, where we used to draw several characters and animals in our huge drawing books during the art and crafts period. Drawing as an activity is so much fun and creative, I don't think anyone would ever get bored of it. The feeling of boredom would only come when one doesn't have the right knack and the skills to perform any drawing. But again, drafting any cartoon or a picture can always be learned if you pay some heed to the basic crafts and techniques. Drawing seriously need an imagination, especially, when an image you are attempting to draw, is not in front of you to refer to! That is sheer art! But this article is not going to intimidate you with such a high expectation, instead, it'll give a step-by-step instruction to draw an object. For now let that object be a horse. It's a structure which is the most easiest and complicated at the same time. So, here is a tutorial on how to draw a horse step by step.

Drawing Considerations

Learning how to draw a horse can be exciting, especially, if you are personally a big fan of this animal, you might already have a pre-imagination of its outlines and base structure. So your hand might draw the curves freely too. You also have a variety and freedom to implement different settings in your drawing. It can be on a racetrack, in a running posture. Or on a farm, with a cowboy standing beside it. Or you can draw a bunch of horses on a battlefield, having men sit on 'em fighting in a war. Drawing this sort of a picture and layout is entirely up to you. So loosen the reins of your imagination and let it run wild in the open fields, just like the horses would do!

Drawing a Horse: Step-by-Step Tutorial

This tutorial is very simple to understand and instantly within the first few steps of your outline, it may even happen you might be the one taking the lead! Secondly, you can attempt drawing a horse on a clean sheet of an A4 size drawing paper or use a canvas where there's more room to space out your picture. Remember it's your first attempt so enjoy whatever you do and however it turns out to be.

Step 1

Here is where you form the basis of this animal. Build its framework by keeping the knowledge of different geometrical shapes and lines. Draw a shape in the form of a peanut: for the horse's head. And a shape in the form of a bean: for the horse's body. Space them both equally so that you can draw the neck for it. The sketch has to be temporary at the start, so that if you make any mistake, you can erase it off easily. So try keeping the sketch little soft at hand.

Step 2

The next step in learning how to draw a horse, comes the anatomy of the horsey! Draw a rectangle for the neck which will be between the bean and the peanut shapes.

Step 3

Now it's time to draw the four legs of the horse. Just beneath the bean shape structure (which is the main body of the horse), draw the front two legs first. Then for drawing the hind legs, draw one of them in a regular rectangular shape. And the other leg which would be on the face of the picture, draw a pear shape for its base and then extend a rectangular shape as a shin.

Step 4
The basic framework of your horse is ready. Its head, neck, body, legs all of these body parts are formed. Now it's time to draw ears, tail and mane. For the ears, just draw two leaf shapes on the head. For tail and mane, remember the letter S. Sketch S shape for both of them and make sure the mane starts from the bottom of the ears.

Step 5
Draw eyes and pupils inside the eyes. Two nostrils on the front of its face. Also draw hooves at the bottom of each of its legs. And with your pencil sketch out straight lines for the horse's mane, tail and mouth.

Step 6

This is where you have actually finished drawing a horse on your own. It's time to add some colors and details. First things first, finalize your drawing with a felt-pen or a regular pen and erase all the extra pencil lines from the picture. What you will have is a defined horse right in front of your eyes. Color it or paint it in its usual colors and add charm to your picture!

Once you learn how to draw these regular horses, try moving your interest to mythological horses like, Unicorns having a single horn on its head and Pegasus of Greek mythology, popularly known as the winged horses.