Horse Breed: Appaloosa

I suppose everyone knows what an Appaloosa is. :) Especially if you took Idaho History. (Seeing as how it's my state horse!) These horses have a very interesting and rather sad history, along with the Nez Perce tribes of Idaho/Washington/Oregon. We are lucky to still have them today, though in a slightly different form than the "original" version bred by the Nez Perce. They are definitely beautiful!

Horse Breed: Australian Stock Horse

Unfortunately I didn't get much done for this week. (I have an unfinished drawing/painting of this breed, as well, which may or may not eventually get completed.) Think "Man from Snowy River" when you think of this breed. :)

Horse Breed: Gypsy Vanner

These horses are delightfully cute. I did a couple of interpretations of the same foal, because I really liked his wild hair (well what do you expect from a Gypsy horse?) and wanted to see how the same pencils would look and work on different types of paper. The first image is my regular mechanical pencil, and the other three are my Graphitint pencils on various surfaces...sketch paper, Hahnemuehle cold press watercolor, and Bristol vellum finish (a smooth hot pressed paper).

Horse Breed: Irish Draught

Well lookee here, two drawings I can be proud of. :) I really don't know why drawing is often such a pain for me...I think mostly I am just too impatient! Doesn't this horse have such a cute face?

Horse Breed: Peruvian Paso

This last week's breed I didn't get around to doing a lot for. But they sound like delightful horses. One of their special characteristics is a natural gait which is a very smooth trot. They are descended from Spanish stock brought to the New World and are known for their great endurance and ability to travel over difficult terrain.

Horse Breed: American Bashkir Curly Horse

Last week's horse breed was one which I was not familiar with, but I fell instantly in love with them, the American Bashkir Curly. As the name indeed implies, these horses have fairly long coats which are, to varying degrees, curly. I just want to give them a big ol' hug!

Horse Breed: Percheron

I really hesitate to post these, quite honestly, they are so bad. :) But you know, I'm going to do it anyway, because you win some, and you lose some, and then you learn and improve. In theory. :) The drawing isn't really "so" bad, though I'm still struggling with the pencil-only drawings, it's just not my medium.
This one, though, looks like a third-grader did it. I can't believe it's so terrible. But it's okay. I can laugh at myself. This is actually my very very first try with gouache, and I really like the properties of the paint, I just need to learn how to use it and such. I keep wanting to go back to fix this, but the paint's already getting a little thick and I'm sure it is going to threaten to flake off the page eventually, anyway. Well, all I can say is that a black horse was *not* an inspired choice for my first foray into this medium.