Arabian Mare

Arabian Mare in pen and ink with coloured pencil 

Here is the mother of the Arabian foal. I think it was shortly before she gave birth. 

It is drawn in pen and ink as before, with coloured pencil enhancement. The size is 4x6 inches. 

I am pleased with this one. I learned a lot while drawing the foal and I was able to avoid the mistakes I had made. 

There is something so beautiful about Arabian horses. I have another drawing to do of the mare with her foal which is so cute. 

I am looking forward to drawing it but currently I am excited about another horse I am going to draw who has such an expression as she looks at her human. I want to show it to the world and that is the true meaning of my art: to show the wonderful value of love and trust, to the world. 

A Pen and Ink of an Arabian Foal

Arabian foal 

Small, 4 x 6 inches, pen and ink drawing with coloured pencil embellishment. 

This is my first attempt at a pen and ink horse. I have drawn and painted horses and studied horse anatomy but this is my first foal. Isn't she cute!

I use a Copic Multiliner pen with a 0.03 nib which is the smallest nib I have found other than the Rotring. I have had Rotrings and they have blocked up quickly. To make the lines thinner and lighter, once I have finished shading, I soften pen lines with an eraser, but it is important to do that before the ink dries completely. The ink must be nearly dry or it will smudge. This would not work on absorbent paper. I draw on a polyester surface.

I am not sure what happened here. It may have been unusually dry weather or just that I left the drawing too long before getting out my erasers, but the lines, especially on the legs, would not soften and they are stronger than I would wish. 

I am being very careful to soften lines in good time in subsequent drawings. (I have just finished a drawing of her mother which I will scan soon.)

A Tiger Enjoying Water

Swimming Tiger 

Here is another of my pen and ink drawings with coloured pencil background. 

I was supposed to be concentrating on pen and ink drawings of horses, but I had already started on this drawing of a tiger and I couldn't resist finishing it. 

I am still learning how to do pen and inks in the 6 x 4 inch format. I have probably got too much colour in the background here. 

I use an eraser to soften the pen marks. It can make them lighter and/or thinner and makes the drawing more subtle. Here I let the drawing dry too long and I couldn't delete the excess ink. 

I know I am telling you all too much about what is wrong with this drawing. I should pretend that it is exactly how I planned. But that is not my character. 

The original does look much better than this scan. Scans exaggerate the black pen marks.