Arabian Horse,... (final)

The start went very well (left image),.. and then I over drew and went too dark and heavy on the hair above the forehead (right image).  The hair is much lighter than I had drawn it,.. I had to lighten it.   

The excess material had to be lifted as opposed to erasing. The act of erasing I feared would push some of the graphite into the tooth of the paper and create more smudge than clean medium.  All I had to do now was draw in the hair lightly.

I finished the muzzle and mane,... and decided it was done.
My wife had asked me for this piece for her cousin. 

Of course since it was
near me I could not help
myself and I worked on
the ears (made them look
less like donkey ears), and
worked down (very little)
the left side of the face
which I think added maturity.  

This started as a quick sketch, but I did manage to learn a few things.
Final size is 8.5" x 12" on 60 lb paper (white).  Dixon Ticonderoga #2 HB Black, General's Kimberly #525  4B and 6B graphite pencils, as well as 0.5 and 0.7 mm mechanical pencils, and General's 2B, 4B and 6B Charcoal #557.   Hard, kneading and Vinyl eraser,... as well as a few techniques for blending (stumbs,tourtilons,clothes) and lifting (poster tack).  




sB