The Noble Equine

Coloured pastel papers have been used to create this beautiful horse.

- Tanja Gordon

STEP ONE

I saw all these amazing coloured pastel papers in one of the art shops I frequent, and the blue colours really caught my eye. I bought a bunch of different hues of blue and couldn’t wait to get started. For this piece, I chose one of the darker colours, something a bit out of my comfort zone.

I use several images as reference, usually from my own photographs and the `punter` section in the newspapers is also a great resource for me. I begin the drawing by mapping out the proportions. I keep it very light and loose, and woArtk fairly quickly, as I’m looking at the big picture, not even thinking about details at this stage. I don’t use an eraser so it can get quite messy, however, keeping it light means it all gets coloured over eventually.

STEP TWO

This stage is used to define exactly how I want the shape of the horse to look like; I’m `setting things in stone` so to speak. I have a definite outline and begin tightening the drawing by colouring the darkest areas and start introducing some highlights. I use biro at this stage as it’s not overbearing and really adds discipline to the details I know I’m going to need.