Xu Beihong

I was researching some practitioners who draw horses, and I came across Xu Beihong. These horses make lovely use of ink, they are expressive yet very descriptive.

His website is chaos, which isn't helped by my lack of ability to read Chinese. But he has many of these horse sketches that really make the most of brush and ink.

His pictures are not overly composed, but they have subtle backgrounds that do not detract from the impactful, impressive and expressive marks that make up the horses. I like this approach and think that it is a way of working that could suite me and the way I like to draw relatively well.

This 'Horse Drinking' is one of my favourites of his. It is also worth noting how the choices of colours of the background really benefit the finished image. It has been accentuated here by the use of a paler beige ink for the horses body, this allows the use of black for the mane, tail and shadow's contrast and stand out so much more. This creates a striking image.