Drawing a Pony

 

Today's snack: Pony Food! Put these three things on a plate in front of you: shred one square of Shredded Wheat cereal into a pile of "hay" . . . three baby carrots . . . and one-half cup of sweet granola in a small bowl. Now eat it like a pony! Hold your hands behind you, and munch your three pony treats just like a pony would. Neighhhhh!!!

 

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Supplies:

 

Gather together tracing paper, unlined drawing paper, a sharp pencil and an eraser.

 

           

One of the most popular subjects of all children's literature and children's art is the pony. No wonder: they're cute, they're kid-sized, and they're endlessly fascinating.

 

            Would you like to learn to draw a pony? You know what they say: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So let's look at a photograph of a pony, and draw it on a separate sheet of paper.

 

First, look at this photograph. Consider the three major shapes that you see:

 

• a rectangle (body)

 

• a triangle (the neck and shoulders)

 

• an oval (the head)

 

 

 

 

With light, loose, relaxed strokes, draw the biggest shapes of the pony's body - the body, the neck and shoulders, and the head. Check your drawing against the photograph to see if your shapes are in proportion to the real thing. Is the body of your pony too fat? Too thin? Too long? Too short? You can erase and correct the shape. Do the same with the neck and shoulders, and the head.

 

 When you are happy with the main shapes of the pony, add the legs, following the same process of erasing and re-drawing, until you are happy. Notice how the horse's "knees" bend backwards, not forwards the way yours do.

 

Then add all the other fun details that make a pony a pony - ears, forelock, nostrils, muzzle, mane, hooves and tail. You don't have to have the legs and tail in the same position as this picture, unless you're trying to make it look a lot like a silhouette - an outline drawing of a three-dimensional object, in this case, the photo of the pony.

 

            How do you like your drawing? Is it suitable for framing? Or at least, putting up on your refrigerator? Try it again, using colored pencils this time. Then try thin markers or watercolors. Experiment! Try it over and over, with different materials, until you find the look you like.

 

Then try a second drawing, zeroing in on the pony's face. Ponies have such expressive, beautiful heads that it is important to get the lines of the pony's head just right.

 

            Here is a picture of a pony's head. Study it to see how much of the head is made up of curving or circular lines, some short and some longer.

 

 

Hold your pencil on top of this picture and "rehearse" how you would draw some of the lines. Don't press down with the pencil point; just imagine how you would draw those lines.

 

Then move to a piece of blank paper and begin by drawing the outline of the nose - the vertical lines that form the long front of the face.

 

Keep drawing small, light, circular lines to bring in the other structures of the head, including the eye areas, ear areas, mane, fetlock, cheeks and muzzle.

 

Add shading, and erase any unwanted lines, to give your drawing a three-dimensional look.

 

How do you like it? Pretty good, huh?

 

Maybe someday you can become an artist and draw horses or other fun things for a living!