Drawing a horse I know

So far I have mostly drawn horses I have never seen in real life. I pick them just because of their looks, not knowing anything about the horse’s personality. Horses I do not really know, unlike this pony. This is a pretty pied pony, with black and white patches on its coat and a white blaze on his head. She can be incredibly stubborn sometimes, but she is adorable. Her name is Bounty.

I tried to draw her with the aid of a beautiful picture of her. First of all, I had to sketch her using a gray sketching pencil. I decided to leave about a centimeter empty between her body and the edge of the paper. Trying to make her stand out on the paper. The background in the image was of a forest in autumn, with trees that already start turning orange and red. I found the look of this pretty and decided that the background ought to be a vague mix of green, yellow, and orange to resemble the fall forest. The background should however not fill the entire page, but should just be a small circle behind her head.

My sketch, with some already colored patches can be seen in this image. The light colors are useful in giving myself an indication of where certain colors should be and whether my idea will turn out like I expect or whether I will still have the adjust the color scheme. I also checked whether the horse was in proportion, because if I would figure out later on I would barely be able to change anything about that anymore. In this case I liked the setup and the colors so I could continue adding more and stronger colors and starting on creating shadow in the right places.

I drew this horse, sitting outside in the sun at a table filled with pens, pencils, and my sketchbook, as can be seen in the next picture. My paper besides a print of the horse so that I could optimal compare and contrast the original, and my copy. Just drawing or painting on a relaxed summer day is how it should truly be like.

The final result can be seen down here. I am especially fond of the diagonal shadow line crossing her neck, which can also be seen in the example photo. This diagonal creates a sense of depth in this drawing, by giving the impression that the horse is standing in the sun. I really like the result, and feel like it looks a lot like Bounty!