Hi, Anon! I’ll definitely try my best. Horns are a little tricky since
they’re so subjective and the styles/textures vary so drastically.
Mostly I’m going to be talking about texture here and I’ll try to keep it simple since they’re time consuming to draw.
Smooth horns are great and easy, can come in any and all shapes, but if you want to add more interest and character to the horns, it all comes down to how you texture them. Here’s a simple smooth horn. It’s okay, it’s basic, but it works and will especially work better once it’s colored if it has a sheen or a matte look.
You can add simple lines to it to give it a bit more interest, but you can take it farther than just the cylinder look like drawn here. The lines give it the easy, quick illusion of being more dimensional, but it’s not the most interesting or dynamic.
You can play with the lines however you like to give the horns more uniqueness, such as a line down the center to sort of pinch it inwards. Still more dynamic than the smooth horn, but more interesting than the rounded one.
You can leave the lines as they are for an easier horn, or take it a step farther and use them as guides to texture them. This is where it gets fun, but time consuming. Definitely look up references of what you want to go for if you’re not sure. I highly recommend Ram, Ibex or Antelope references, Antelope being my favorite. They have so much texture to them in the forum of smaller and larger ridges, so here’s a horn based loosely (artistic liberties taken) off a mix of Ram and Antelope.
Getting into plates which are my favorite, there’s little to reference off of. Here’s a more dynamic, spiky look with plates using the guide lines as a base to get an ideal direction you want the horn to shape into.
Just take your guide lines and then extend outward. Add as little or as much wear, tear and damage as you want. Horns can get dry and crack, they can take a hit and break, age can cause grooves, your imagination’s the limit.
Outside of plates, you can look up any horned animal to get ideas for texture, anything from steer to deer and elk (if you want to get more into the antlered look), or mix and match textures from a few horn styles you like. Hope this helps! Sorry I can’t go more in depth, but I tried to explain it as best as I know how. Good luck with your horns!
