How is this?

hopehacker

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Just wondering if this is better than my previous horse picture. I tried to made it less cartoonish, more realistic.

Does this look a bit better?
 

roimata

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I like this one alot more, you payed more attention to the details IMO. In the other picture the horses hair looked like yarn, now it looks alot better. Also the trees look 10 times better!
 

crazyforinfo

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What's up with the texture?
That's all my eyes are focusing on. I think it still looks cartoonish. If that is what you are going for it looks good.
 

babyharley

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Originally Posted by Crazyforinfo

What's up with the texture?
That's all my eyes are focusing on. I think it still looks cartoonish. If that is what you are going for it looks good.
It looks good if your going for the cartoonish look, either way, its better than anything I can do, so who am I to judge!
 
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hopehacker

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The texture is the canvas it's on. I'm not really going for cartoon, but like I said earlier, I'm more used to doing cartoonish type of images. I guess I'll have to keep working on things, to make them look less cartoonish.
 

jenny82

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I think it's great!!


The bright colors is what makes it look a little cartoonish to me...maybe darken things a little? Or maybe you could just darken one thing, such as the horse. Just an idea.
 

roimata

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Its really hard to make something look realstic. One thing that you need to change is the colors, the colors is what make it look to cartoony, theyre too bright and bland, theres no real color dimensons there, and the grass is too green and not blade like to look realistic. As for the horse. Do you look at a picture of a horse when you paint? If not it should help you get the details down and the shadowing and all of that, and the colors.
 

sarahp

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It looks really good


The only question I have is whether horse nostrils are that big?? His nostril is the same size as his eye - is that how horses look? It's been a while since I was around horses
 

roimata

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Originally Posted by sarahp

It looks really good


The only question I have is whether horse nostrils are that big?? His nostril is the same size as his eye - is that how horses look? It's been a while since I was around horses
lmao I was thinking the same thing, but I havent payed much attention to horse nostrils so I didnt know if I was just imagining it.
 
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hopehacker

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Horses nostrils are bigger than their eyes. I might have mine too big though. Horses nostrils also looke bigger when they flair them.

I was trying to make the grass blurred, to create a depth of field. You know how when you take a photo, you can blue everything but the subject. I was trying to create than sort of an effect.
 

snosrap5

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When I think of a drawing of a real horse, this comes to mind.

http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/20...425x425Q85.jpg

or this

http://www.wegehenkel.com/images/art...ing-whorse.jpg

That's a real life horse drawing IMO.

I think your stuck on the MLP mentality. And I don't in any way mean that meanly. I promise.

I didn't know if you were trying to achieve pictures like I attached above
or something like this.

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/16...425x425Q85.jpg

If it's something like this then I think you are on the right track.
 

crittermom

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The tree is by far ALOT better now.
The horse still has the cartoony feel to me too.It's the colors that you are using, I think.
 

adymarie

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I really like the trees in this one. IMO, however - the eye looks a little large - maybe it should be partially lidded?

You are a wonderful artist!
 

paulena

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I think you are very talented either way. Much better than I could ever attempt.
Both of the drawings look very good to me!!
 

natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by HopeHacker

Just wondering if this is better than my previous horse picture. I tried to made it less cartoonish, more realistic.

Does this look a bit better?
This is an improvement over the last one.

Someone said that it looks "cartoony". I wouldn't go so far as saying that, but if realism is what you are going for you aren't there yet. I can't find the word to describe it, but 'cartoony' isn't it. I would say that I can see this painting being hung as decor in a small girl's bedroom if that is of any help?

Some things that I see wrong is the incongruence in where the light is coming from.

On one hand the large tree in front has a shadow on the right side of it, indicating the light source is from the left. However if the light were coming from the left the horse should have some deep shadows on it's neck from it's head, along with shadows under the mane that is over it's face.

On the other hand the tree in the background on the right indicates that the light is coming from the back and towards the right, because it's shadow is in front and to the left of it.

Then you show the sun directly in the background, which would indicate that the shadows should be directly in front of the objects in its path, which would mean not only should the shadows of the tree be on this side of the trees, but that the side of the horse facing us should be deeper in shadow.

The horse not only needs more shadow for the body, but also the mane. Here is a painting by Gail Rein that is a good example of a nicely done horse's mane. You can see that the mane looks like it is actually strands of hair and you can see shadows between the strands so that they stand out from the other strands.

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...es-Posters.jpg

You can also see that not only is there shadow on the horse but also "light' which give the horse more definition and depth.

Another thing that stands out to me is the shape of the horse's eye. Their eyes are almond shaped like ours are, plus the reflection looks too large and centred, like it should be a pupil. Have a look at the link above and you will see that the horse's eye is almond shaped, and that it also has upper and lower eye lids. I would also suggest a smaller dot of paint to indicate reflection too.

The grass is also too "even" in texture and tone. It should have some feeling of texture to it, some fine brush strokes that indicate the grass is actually standing up. Right now it looks like baseball turf. Perhaps also have some really long patches of grass around the trees so that the trees look like they blend in. It is a pasture so I doubt that the farmer went in with his lawn mower and weed wacker and trimmed the grass nice and neat.

You definitely have a talent!!!! But if you are looking to improve and get more realistic I would suggest borrowing a book from the library on "Art Theory" and maybe on "painting techniques", and also painting from a reference photo to start with. Once you get familiar with light, shadow, shape, musculature etc, it will be much easier to paint without reference.
 

marie-p

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I really love the tree. It has a lot of depth to it because of the shadows and non-uniform color.

The shape of the horse looks good, but I think it doesn't have the same depth and 3 dimensional feeling as the tree. I would accentuate the shadows and vary the coloring more. Don't be afraid to mix colors.

Good job though. Very pretty.
 
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