How to Draw Horse Faces

Horses have been captured in artwork from early cave paintings to oil masterpieces done hundreds of years ago. Horses are smart, agile and friendly creatures. One of the hardest ways to draw a horse is with the face looking directly at the viewer. However, drawing a horse face can be done with a few simple geometric shapes. You can use the instructions below as a template to draw many different types of horse faces.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Black Ink Pen
• Kneaded Eraser

Instructions

1. 

   Draw the face of the horse with a long thin oval. Draw a vertical line directly down the middle of the face. Add a horizontal line running across the top third of the face. Add another horizontal line at the bottom third of the horse's face. Directly under this draw a final horizontal line. These lines will help you mark out where the eyes nose and mouth go. On the two top sides of the face add two rectangles for the ears.

2. 

   Draw the eyes with two diagonally pointing ovals on the top horizontal guideline. Add two parallel lines that dip in toward the center on each side of the face. Draw the nostrils on the middle horizontal guideline with two upside-down "U" shapes. Draw two parallel lines coming up from the top of each nostril and ending in the middle of the face.

3. 

   Create the hair on the top of the horses head by drawing an oval of jagged lines. The jagged lines can be drawn with small triangular points. Add hair to the side of the horse by drawing a line that tips diagonally toward the corner of the page. As you are drawing the line, dip the line in and up before continuing down again. Do this on each side of the horse's head.

4. 

   Draw the inside of the ears with an upside-down "L" shape on each ear. Add a tuft of hair to the middle of the face by drawing hair in the same manner as you did before with the hair on the top of the head. Draw hair on the cheeks of the horse with small triangular lines on the side of each cheek. Do this on the bottom of the chin as well. Add the bottom lip with a line under the mouth.

5. 

   Erase all of the guidelines. Retouch any of the lines that you need to keep.

6. 

   Ink the entire drawing. Let the ink dry and carefully erase all of the pencil. Darken in the eyes with your pen. Add shadows with thick dark lines inside the ears, nostrils and under the bottom lip.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to let the ink dry before you erase the pencil or it will smudge.

Resources

• Click here for drawings of horses.