Tales of an Equine Artist

From Doodles to Digital Art

By Emilie Goddard

As a horse-obsessed youngster, I spent hours upon hours pouring through every book I could find (when I wasn’t physically at the barn), learning about horse care, different breeds, and various disciplines. Like just about every kid my age, I had a family who thought I’d grow out of it; because after all, “it’s just a phase.”

Well, it wasn’t just a phase. I think they finally figured that out when I decided to make a career of being at the barn.

But besides riding, I always had art. If I wasn’t at the barn, and I wasn’t home reading, I was usually drawing. I filled notebook after notebook with doodles of ponies I could only wish to have, and experimented with pastels, watercolors, oils, and acrylics. I devoured all I could about art. And those ponies I dreamed about? At long last, I got one of my own – a gelding named Abercrombie of Deer Haven (I call him Crumble).

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally tried my hand at digital art, after seeing it so often online. Having spent a childhood filled with Disney movies, I wanted to achieve a similar feel in my own art, and knew that going digital would be a great way to help me reach that goal.

Digital art can encompass anything from “fingerpainting” using an art app on an iPad, to using Adobe Photoshop to combine parts of various photos to create something completely new (called photomanipulation). For my art, I use a tablet specifically designed for drawing. It plugs in to my laptop via USB, and I use a special pen (like a stylus) to draw directly onto the tablet. On my laptop, I open my art software, and whatever I draw on the tablet shows up on my computer.

After playing around with this new (to me) medium, I had an idea: why not combine my two passions and create a picture book featuring my Haflinger?

Google was – still is – one of my best friends when it comes to this project. I searched for information on creating children’s picture books, found out how many pages is standard (the answer is 32!) and wrote an outline for my story. Then I began drawing thumbnails, to figure out what exactly would be on each page.

Over the course of a few months, I spent time working and re-working my thumbnails. Eventually, I felt confident enough to flesh out the story some more, and wrote the first draft.

Knowing the idea is to make a picture book – and art is my “thing” – I wanted to get started on the drawing process as soon as possible. I needed to settle on a consistent look for each of the characters in my book. To do this, I considered the following: - Simplicity. It needs to be a design I can easily replicate. - Look. Will my characters be stylized, or more realistic looking? - Colors. Make sure I keep the colors of each character consistent.

Only a few weeks ago, I finalized the look I want to use for Crumble, and I’m excited about it! The next step is the best and most time-consuming part – drawing all the pictures I have planned. I need to consider the composition, background, and lighting for each scene I’m depicting, and make sure they are all relevant to the story. My ultimate goal is to make it look like each drawing is a still from an animated film.

It’s a work in progress; but a fun, interesting process. My day job still involves mucking out stalls, riding horses, and teaching lessons, so it can be difficult to carve out time to work on my story. In a way, it’s like I’ve come full circle – from a horse-crazy kid who doodled ponies in her notebooks, to a horse-crazy adult, employed at a farm, and having fun with a little side project. Because, you know…as if spending all day at the barn isn’t enough, why not find a way to get some more horse time in your life?

Try your hand at illustrating and fill in the foal!