Draw: a horse.

Here's a step by step look at how I draw my favorite subject, horses. I grew up on ponies and horses and can actually draw (a rather rough one) with my eyes closed. I did this one with my eyes open, using my Wacom Graphyre graphics tablet, my desktop computer, and Photoshop (which has nifty art tools, endless colors, and lots of different kinds of "brushes"). You can do this with a piece of paper, pencils and crayons, or any other art tools. While I can draw a pretty good horse from my imagination, I use reference: photos, models, sketches of real horses to get the proportions, anatomy, action and details right. For this one I used a small Safari model that happens to look like my Arabian/Mustang mare, Svaha. (from a book of the same name by Charles DeLint: he says it's a Native American word (he doesn't say which tribe) for the space between thunder and lightning.)

First I scribble. I make a border around my paper, because sometimes I draw off the paper. If I draw over the border, I'm still on the paper. I'm just getting action lines and gestures here. I'm thinking about proportions.

Draw from the inside out. Know your anatomy. George Stubbs was a famous horse artist of the 18th century, he studied a lot of dead horses. You don't have to get a dead horse: you can get his book, or others. Dinosaur artists have only bones to draw from (bones tell you a lot: like where muscles attach).

I start adding detail...

Background? A natural background? A wild landscape? A pasture? Tell a story with your setting, or just do a vignette of the horse alone.

I had fun with Photoshop's star tool, instead of a plain sky.

I add the body color; this is a bay horse, reddish brown body and black points (mane, tail, legs). Research your subject: what are the real colors of horses (lots of books and websites). If you are doing a spotted horse, what are the actual patterns horses come in? (Pintos come in tobiano, overo, tovero, splash, frame.) Different from dogs, cats or cows.

I add more detail, clean up the edges. My Photoshop tools work like oil paint, I can even smear and smudge the "wet paint".

More scribbling. I like to use circles to block out the big basic shapes. You can use any basic shape, squares, triangles whatever. Just think in big shapes right now. Stick figure legs. Think about proportions: is the body two headlengths long? Is it farther from withers-to-chest than chest-to-ground? (Is the horse's body deeper than his legs are long?)

Along with the big round circles, I sketch in shoulder blades, hipbones, thigh, upper arm, and leg bones. Also leg joints (the little circles): hocks and knees and fetlocks and hooves. What??? You need to know something about your subject: like what that doohickey is called.

...and clean up the drawing. You can erase your scribble lines (kneaded rubber erasers are the best: you can lighten a line or erase it completely). You can draw over your scribble with Prismacolor Pencil, marker, ink, or something else that doesn't erase. I used a separate layer on Photoshop to draw the finish and erased the scribble layer. 

I made the grass fade into the background by having it get smaller (perspective) and bluer (things blue as they fade into the distant air). Use reference: not all grass looks alike: a tall grass prairie is different from marsh grass on a barrier island or your lawn.

I add shadows. Models or action figures are useful: you can light them lots of different ways with a desk lamp or work light.

More color, more shadows. If you're working in an opaque medium (acrylic, poster paint, oils, pastels, some colored pencils) you can add lighter colors over the darker ones. If you're working in watercolor, marker, crayon, or many colored pencils, you'll have to leave the highlights; you'll have to let the white paper shine through in the light parts.

I used my smudge tool on the sky, and polished the highlights and shadows on the horse. Now, try your own.