Half the time working on this was spent on the head because it was frustratingly difficult to get the exact shape I wanted! Like with the drooping rat noses from a while back, I had a very clear image of an animated horse with a distinct, stylised, extremely narrow head shape (looking into the camera making a sort of annoyed face)... but annoyingly I can't find exactly which animated film it's from!
There's this list, for example: [LINK]
But none of them are obviously this thing I can clearly picture. Mulan's horse seems most similar though; there seems to be a lot of variation in their head and snout shapes, and that has the stylised, angular narrowness I was going for.
SketchFab is also my go-to source for references these days, as being able to check things from multiple angles is very useful for getting my head around their form. I searched for horses, and also 'chess knight': [LINK]+knight&sort_by=-relevance&type=models
Again, there's a lot of variation, but this one - particularly the narrowness of the snout and the diamond shape of the forehead when viewed from the top/front - seemed closest to the stylised look I had in mind: [LINK]
Looking at that again, though, I notice that I curved the snout in, while most horse depictions have it completely straight. I wonder if that'd change how it's perceived... though I also suspect context is everything, and this head probably would pass as 'probably a horse' on a horse body - or chess piece base - while the whole aquatic body brings to mind Nessie and such instead. Perception is more about the whole shape than minor details, after all, and there's probably no getting around that. At least this model's not hugely important anyway!
0
Falcon62~3Y
I feel like, for me, the spikes alongside the back of its neck, and the absence of horse ears, are what shifts the perception of the head from "horse" to "dragon".
There's this list, for example: [LINK]
But none of them are obviously this thing I can clearly picture. Mulan's horse seems most similar though; there seems to be a lot of variation in their head and snout shapes, and that has the stylised, angular narrowness I was going for.
SketchFab is also my go-to source for references these days, as being able to check things from multiple angles is very useful for getting my head around their form. I searched for horses, and also 'chess knight': [LINK]+knight&sort_by=-relevance&type=models
Again, there's a lot of variation, but this one - particularly the narrowness of the snout and the diamond shape of the forehead when viewed from the top/front - seemed closest to the stylised look I had in mind: [LINK]
Looking at that again, though, I notice that I curved the snout in, while most horse depictions have it completely straight. I wonder if that'd change how it's perceived... though I also suspect context is everything, and this head probably would pass as 'probably a horse' on a horse body - or chess piece base - while the whole aquatic body brings to mind Nessie and such instead. Perception is more about the whole shape than minor details, after all, and there's probably no getting around that. At least this model's not hugely important anyway!