Thursday, January 29, 2009

Horse Breeds: Icelandic

I am late in posting this, but the breed for last week was the Icelandic horse. It's a very interesting (and cute and cuddly) breed. They are actually very small for horses, but are still called horses and not ponies as they are considered to be an adult's riding horse, in one day they can go 35 miles carrying 155-220 pounds. They also have an interesting gait which is rather unique to them called the "skold" which is similar in speed to a trot but much smoother. They are, of course, from Iceland, where there is a law in place that, due to the closed nature of the breed (and their susceptibility to disease), they may be exported, but they may never return to Iceland, and no foreign horses may be brought into the country. As for my drawings this week, I am not really happy with the first one (I cringe seeing where I placed the withers) as I was having difficulty with their deceptively simple proportions. This is in my large 11x14ish book.
This is watercolor pencil, approx 7x7, a little better than my drawing.And a Graphitint sketch, approx 4x4. She's shaggy because she's in her winter coat....but sooo cute!

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