Guides · Animal heads
Horse Head Front View: Reference Photos
Reference photos of horse heads seen from the front: the face turned to the camera, within thirty degrees of straight on. Four landmarks change at this angle, and each has a common mistake.
MSVG, CC BY 
Papa Pic from Eldorado, Argentina, Public Domain Mark 
Media Villages, CC BY-SA 
Clément Bucco-Lechat, CC BY-SA D. Gibson, Unsplash License 
Wojtek Szkutnik, CC BY 
Kurt Kaiser, CC0 1.0 
Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 
Nico Hernandez, CC BY 
Dave Richardson, CC BY 
Wilfredo Páucar, CC BY-SA 
Hänsel und Gretel, CC BY-SA
What changes at this angle
- The muzzle is foreshortened, so the nose sits close under the eyes in the picture even on a long-faced animal.
- The outline of the head narrows from the ear bases down to the nose.
- On a horse the eyes sit at the sides of the head, each near the outline.
- The chin shows as a small shape directly below the nose.
What goes wrong
- Drawing the muzzle at its side-view length on a face that looks at you, so the head reads stretched and the nose seems to droop toward the floor.
- Drawing the muzzle as wide as the skull, so the head reads as a box and the animal looks like a toy.
- Pulling a horse's eyes round to the front of the face, so the horse reads as a cartoon or a predator with a human stare.
- Ending the head at the nose with no chin under it, so the head reads clipped at the bottom and the animal seems to have no lower jaw.
Try it
Open the same angle in the animal head search, filtered to horse, to see more results.