Customer Reviews

Draw Horses (Discover Drawing)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is great if you know some of the basics of how to draw a horse. It has everything you need to know about shadowing which is very important for your drawing to look realistic and lively. It also shows you how to draw ears, eyes, muzzle, legs, hooves, and hair(the mane and the tail). After following a step by step procedure I was able to draw a Great horsey eye which looked realistic. The book also has step by step precedures on how to draw horses from different views front,back, laying down, etc.) It also contains several drawings that have no step by step precedure but rather allow you to practice on your own. I advise you to buy this book, it's really good!

I hesitated to buy this book because it had a low price, but it is excellent. Lee Hammond can really draw, and she shows you how. At the beginning of the book, she goes over the basic shapes, such as circles, spheres, and shows you what each one needs in order to look realistic. Then she shows you how she draws each feature of a horse. It's just a great book and I have read many. I bought one of her colored pencil books after I saw this one and I can't wait.

I think this would be a great book for a child or someone who wants to draw horses but does not know much about drawing in general. There are step by step instructions for drawing standing, untacked horses in pencil. The major strength of the book is that it shows how to use soft pencil and blending tortillions to create realistic shading effects. Major deficits include no information whatsoever on gaits and other types of movement, almost no anatomical information, very little on breed differences, and nothing on tack. The dozen equine pages in Jack Hamm's How to Draw Animals does a much better job with these essential topics. The author recommends that the student draw from photos - I didn't need a book to tell me that. If your photo doesn't depict your subject in the position you want, this book won't be much help. Also, if your favorite medium is anything other than pencil, this book is not for you. Having said all this, the pictures I drew from the instructions were definitely better than anything I had drawn previously. So I don't regret buying it, but I wish it had been more comprehensive.

For those of you who were ecstatic with this book, I'm glad you found it helpful. Really. I am. But as for me, I will not be able to sleep tonight unless I tell you right now--there are better books out there. Do NOT spend your hard earned dollars (or your parents' hard earned dollars) on this book unless you have done some comparison shopping, or are otherwise convinced I am a rambling crackhead. That having been said.

I thought the artist's drawings were juvenile at best, as she tends to focus entirely on shading, and gives little thought to representing the horse's correct anatomical structure. I'm not talking nitty-gritty details, I'm talking glaring faults that anyone familiar with horses would find offensive. Granted, there are a few exceptions, but on the whole, even with the acceptable drawings, they're not what I would call inspiring, and certainly nothing I would expect to see in a published work. In particular, I found it unprofessional how she glossed over the hooves and lower legs in her drawings--they appeared sloppy and in some cases, horribly innacurate. I don't know if she felt like these details weren't worth her time or what, but I'm telling all of you aspiring artists, attention to detail is one of those dividing lines between a merely acceptable drawing and something outstanding. No matter how pretty your horse's mane, tail, eyes [ie, more exciting features] are, if its hooves and legs are shoddy and sloppy, people will recognize you as the fraud you are. Spend some time and learn how to draw the features accurately.
Now I realize that this has turned out to be a rather [long] caustic attack on the artist, and probably not very popular, because nobody likes reviews that say mean things. But I don't have anything against Hammond personally--I've seen some of her paintings of humans, and they're not bad. But equine art is a speciality all its own, and for artists unfamiliar with horses to think that drawing a horse is as simple as looking at a photo--it's not. So no matter how talented the author may be in other fields, she has by no means convinced me that she is an authority on drawing horses.
[As a side note, I did find the section on shading techniques--something common to nearly all aspects of art-- to be useful, and for that reason I never returned the book.]
Learn from my mistake. Check out a copy from the library or something, but don't feel like your life will be incomplete without it. Do yourself a favor--and I don't care if you just learned what a horse was or have been drawing for years--get something more comprehensive than this. You want to learn from an experienced artist.

btw, If you're looking for a reliable resource for your horse-drawing endeavors (presumably), I suggest Jack Hamm's How to Draw Animals(I like the section on anatomical proportions), and Sam Savitt's Draw Horses With Sam Savitt (I like the whole thing--Savitt is a brilliant artist). I've had Hamm's book for years, and my only regret with Savitt's is that I didn't get it sooner. Trust me, you can't go wrong with these books.

I reaaaaalllly hope this helps.

This horse drawing book is great for the pre-teen who wants to draw realistic horses. Easy to follow directions and loads of pointers from a master. It was just the book for one of my students. She went from flat looking steeds to very realistic animals in a matter of two weeks.

I just can't beleive how great it is!!!!!!!!
This tells you everything anywhere from the main body structure, to great shading!
I'd give this a 11 star if there was such thing.

My 12 yr old loves this book. She is horse crazy, like most young girls and has been drawing horses on her own for awhile. She got this book for Christmas and her drawing has improved. She likes the book.

This book was very helpful to me, now I am drawing horses I've never imagined I'd draw. This book helps with shading (alot!) and many little details, such as how to fade the eye at one end. It helps with bigger issues as well, such as the entire face of the horse. This book will completley transform your drawing skills, from what may be a scribbly outline, to a unimaginably life-like horse.

Thanks so much Lee Hammond. You are really a master.

This book will not help an artist (or anyone) learn to draw horses well, since the author isn't yet drawing horses well. Her drawings of horses are lifeless, superficial and often inaccurate. Hooves and nostrils, heads, necks, forelegs are grossly misshapen. Every single drawing appears to be drawn from a photograph. The author's unfamiliarity with horses and their physicality (and spirit, and personality) make this book not worth the money. Worse, this book may teach you to replicate her mistakes.

Page 42: "Drawing a horsetail [sic] is very similar to drawing a mane..." It isn't similar. A horse's tail is flesh and sinew and bone under the hair. Hammond draws the tail like it IS a mane, flowing hair with no structure underneath.

She isn't able to accurately portray anatomy, and it's worse when the horse is in action. Of the two jumping horses on page 75, one has soggy, short, crooked front legs, the other a physically impossible head and neck. If you aren't around horses or aren't an artist, you might not notice these distortions. If you are either, these and many other mistakes are jarring. Lee Hammond can shade very well. She can copy. She draws only surface, without an understanding of WHY the surface is as it is. She can't give you what she does not have: an understanding of horses.

Save your money and get 'Draw Horses with Sam Savitt' instead. Savitt's book has a lifetime's worth of deep observation and understanding of the body and the mind of horses. Savitt even has a section on how to avoid distortions when drawing from photographs. Read that part and avoid drawing horses like Lee Hammond.

Drawing from life, drawing from a good Breyer model horse model, or even copying from an artist who draws well from life would be much more educational for an aspiring artist, or to an artist learning to draw horses.

If you want a book, Sam Savitt's generous, masterful book will guide you to more lifelike, satisfying drawings. If you have just one book on drawing horses, let it be Savitt's.


I can't seem to add a product link, here is the book:
Draw Horses with Sam Savitt [Paperback]
Sam Savitt (Author, Illustrator)

# ISBN-10: 0939481839
# ISBN-13: 978-0939481835

We purchased this book for our 15 year old daughter for Christmas and she really loves it. She would recommend it for others.