Gypsy Pegasus

*luv4usagi won second place in #The-Saddle-Club's recent photo contest, "Horses of the World. Here is her winning entry, featuring a Belgian draft horse.


_{here's another cool shot by her!}


One of the many prizes for this placing was a sketch request from me! She requested a fantasy version of a Gypsy Vanner horse, maybe one with wings. And I loved the idea, so I ran with it! Gypsy Vanners are a beautiful breed of heavy horse, traditionally used to pull wagons. They're known for their piebald coloring, long mane and tail, and abundant feathers (around their hooves, not their wings ).



When I started the piece, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pull off a draft horse-type body, since in the past I haven't been very good at drafts. To my surprise, drawing a draft horse wasn't that hard - it was shading a piebald horse that was hard! I hope it looks like it's supposed to be piebald, not like I accidentally missed some spots while shading. I also don't think I did a particularly great job on the feathering (another reason I didn't like drawing drafts).

The wings were interesting to work on. Gypsies are heavy horses, so this pegasus needed heavy duty wings. I was originally going to base the wings off a kori bustard (heaviest flying bird), then I changed to an Andean condor (largest flying bird), then finally to a Steller's sea eagle (heaviest eagle). I figured the eagle has the most powerful wings for the gypsy, since kori bustards don't really do sustained flight, and condors mostly hover. Of course, whether or not the wings actually look like eagle wings is another matter.

Aaanyway, enjoy!

_{approximately 2 hours, openCanvas 1.1, no direct references used}