Choosing Pastel Pencils for Drawing a Horse's Head

One of our members Belinda sent us an email asking for advice on choosing pastel pencils for her picture. Belinda says:

I have attached a photo of a horse. Not the best but I think you can see the colours involved.What colours do you think I need to do a head drawing in pastel?

Here's the picture Belinda attached:In this picture you've got a mix of grey and ochre. Let's have a look at the grey colours you will need first.

Grey Colours

The Earth greys would work best here so this is 270 Warm Grey I and 273 Warm Grey IV. 270 is your base colour in the light areas and 273 in the darker areas.The other colours you would add on top of these are 175 Dark Sepia, possibly 181 Payne's grey and finally black 199.

Ochre Colours

The Ochre colours I see in this picture are ivory as your base colour, then 187 Burnt Ochre and 283 Burn Siena.Finally I would try using 177 Walnut Brown for darkening those tones. As with all of these colours I would recommend trying them out on spare paper first to check it's giving the tone you desire.

Mixing Both

Under the eye you've got a mix of the grey and ochre colours. In this situation I would use grey as the base colour over the ivory (this is the light grey - 270 as it is a light area).Then you would put on the stronger greys and ochres together.Lastly you've also got a white flash in there so that is self explanatory!

The Eye

The eye would use a combination of all the colours we've listed above. Although the eye looks dark and black it's almost certainly got ochre in it. For this I would use 187 Burnt Ochre followed by 283 Burnt Siena and then darken these tones with 175 Dark Sepia.I hope that helps.If you would like to receive feedback on your artwork and access all our animal lessons then click here.