Introduction
Most folks think of a horse as having just a head, but to an equine artist, a horse has a face. And a very distinctive one at that as each horse's face is different because each is an individual, just like us. And we humans gravitate towards the face because that’s how we’re naturally wired which makes the face a very strong focal point in equine art. With all this in mind then, being mindful of how we paint the face on our sculpture, paying close attention to tone, texture, detail, precision, and expression, can really make it "pop" and connect with the viewer in a very appealing way.
We've got our work cut out for us though because, truly, the face is characterized by lots of details and nuances that are essential to capture in a paintjob. But artwork is as much addition as it is subtraction, so we need to know what to showcase and what to downplay, and facial shading is an aspect where this skill becomes important to avoid a confusing effect. So let’s talk about some ways to achieve a life-like impression in our painted equine faces with some simple ideas and approaches.
That said though, know that we won't be discussing the painting of eyes or markings since they warrant their own tutorials. We'll just be focusing on the contours of the equine face and how we can help them "pop" and appear textural, detailed, and fleshy.
Key Features
First, lets identify those skeletal or bony parts of the face that need highlighting and those that need shading. Such skeletal things include the zygomatic arches, the nasal bone, jaw bars, and the teardrop bone. To that end, remember that subcutaneous bone should appear hard and solid, not fleshy and squishy. A handy way to achieve this is using bold blocks of highlight and shadow. However, don't forget that certain coat colors often call for bony areas to be darkly shaded. For example, on many greys and sooties, the teardrop bone and zygomatics can be dark at times.
Next, identify those fleshy parts that deserve careful treatment such as the jowls, the buccinator bellies, the muzzle, the eyelids, eyebrow wrinkles, forehead musculature, and fleshy details and textures, for example. Keep in mind that these are gooshy areas and should be painted in a way that instills a fleshy nature into them. A handy way to mimic this is to use a bold shading treatment with embedded tonal differences, with a squiggly, multi-layered treatment to highlighting, textural details, and tone. Indeed, squiggles of light color are particularly helpful in the expanse between the eye and nostril, for instance.
Third, identify those details that should be specifically highlighted such as veins, wrinkles, eyelashes, ear fuzz, ripples, moles, subtle bumps or depressions, or other little touches. Like with fleshy parts, these squooshy or textural details should appear gooshy and soft or fuzzy, not hard and firm. A good way to achieve this is a subtle layering of color and tone to make them sit back in some places and pop out in others.
Fourth, pay careful attention to hair growth patterns such as forehead whorls, or the flow or grouping of fleabites, or the grain on composite colors (like grey and sooty). Likewise, hair details should appear fuzzy or silky, and a diffused use of paint with subtle, strategic, striated detail can do much to mimic this effect. For example, drawing in “hairs” with color pencils and then softening them with a burnisher or airbrush to make them “sit back" into the coat can work well.
Artistic Considerations
Once we have a good handle on the sculpture’s facial features, we can now paint them. The thing to keep in mind is that it’s our job as a painter to showcase those sculpted aspects that are terrific and minimize those that are problematic, if any exist. In short, we should flatter the sculpture in a lifelike manner, and that can be achieved by the following:
- Think of the face being lit from a single light source, somewhere in the front, about five inches from the sculpture’s nasal bone and forehead. This helps to mimic the angle of the sun's light if we were studying a real horse. So where the light hits is where the highlight should be concentrated and where it doesn’t should be where there shade is applied. In other words, the “top” of things need highlight and the “bottom” of things need shading.
- We should paint like we mean it. Be confident to avoid a confusing use of pigment. Keeping our ideas clear and facial features distinct helps to foster the impression of mass and factual anatomy.
- The face has to make sense visually or it’ll be distracting. Every single detail and portion of the face should be treated with a meticulous hand. Indeed, imprecision, confusion, or carelessness with our media can ruin the result. Plus, our paintwork should never appear hurried, sloppy, or inconsistent to the underlying sculpture. For instance, an eyelid highlight should be exactly on the tops of the eyelid and not slid into the crease. Likewise, shading should be exactly within the crease and not creep up onto the eye lid. Similarly, vein highlights should be exactly on top of the veins and not slip off onto the facial musculature. An unsteady hand defeats our purpose. Precision is everything when painting faces!
- Detail counts. While some pieces have a simplistic approach to facial shading, they could do better with more detail. Why? Because we’re dealing with inanimate objects that have to mimic life, and usually an overly simplistic approach to facial shading needs a bit of help to truly convey this impression. We don't want our piece to look just like a painted model, do we? And especially not one we spent a hurried ten minutes painting, right? So pay extra attention to details, deliberately accentuating them with pigment carefully. Like look for squiggles, ripples, and tiny striations in life and in the sculpture to accentuate to really wake up our facial paintwork.
- Know which to emphasize and which to give softer treatment. For example, the zygomatic arches and buccinators can do well with a bolder treatment whereas the muzzle can often use a subtler touch.
- Be mindful of coat colors and characteristics such as pangaré, sooties, greying patterns, or other such coat effects because these often require different pigments, color blocking, and treatments. As for cremellos and other similar dilutes, we can simply substitute those various dilute skin tones for the typical dark skin charcoal tones. The same ideas apply, however.
- If the sculpture’s facial structure is incorrect, it’s best to minimize those areas that are inaccurate and focus on other areas that are correct rather than fight matters and artificially manipulate things with pigment. Perhaps a pattern or marking can help disguise and distract, too? Nevertheless, while an incorrect sculpture can be elevated by skilled paintwork, the problems will still be visible to a trained eye, so we should just do our best.
- Determine what the physical exertion, grooming, or environmental situation the sculpture represents before shading the face. For instance, a thin-skinned Arabian on a hot day can have markings that may be slightly pinked, especially if the animal is show clipped. Likewise, a piece depicting an animal in a gallop or hard exercise, pinked markings can help the impression of pumping blood close to the surface of the skin. On the other hand, a horse on a cold day or with a winter coat often won’t have much pinking in his facial markings other than the extreme areas of his muzzle. Similarly, a horse with a tightly clipped face, such as a show Arabian, will have more dark skin showing so pay attention to where and how that manifests.
- It's often fun to create a soft, "pasture-infused" effect of muzzle shading by adding tans and greens to the boxy upper lip and lower lip rims at the front of the muzzle.
- It can be a good idea to tint greys away from stark black and white mixtures away from stark white to instead infuse some tans and browns to soften them for a fleshier look. Also, this gives you a "place to go" when you add highlights and shadings.
- Don't always think in terms of body color and and black for skin aspects. In reference photos, look for greys, tans, greens (grass staining) and other colors that can add realism and dimension to the blackened areas. Also look for highlighted areas such as the nostril rims, muzzle wrinkling, and fleshy bits that do well with a bit of accentuation with soft, lighter colors.
- Make sure the intensity of the facial shading is consistent to the intensity of the body shading since both need to harmonize. A body given cursory treatment looks odd with a face that’s been super detailed or visa versa. Keep the big picture in mind.
- Ears shouldn’t be ignored but given the same special treatment as the rest of the face. This means that their insides should be shaded to highlight their gentle ridges if clipped or have their hair shaded and highlighted if fuzzy. The ear rims should also be neatly rimmed and the “V” where the ear folds join the head should be precisely painted in.
How to Shade Faces
Note: "Charcoal" dark skin is mentioned here as a catchall for regular ol' dark skin on a horse. But when it comes to certain dilutes like champagne, pearl, isabella, etc., think in terms of their respective lavender-brown, brown, or pink skin tones instead of charcoal. Markings also need pinking around the muzzle, so remember to do that as well.
- Basecoat the entire head the same color as the body or how your reference photo indicates.
- Block in any tonal differences indicative of a pattern such as pangaré, sooty, or grey.
- Block in the charcoal shadings of the eye, nostril, and ear.
- Line the top ridges of the eyelids and brow wrinkles in a light grey or light version of the body color, and the crevices of the wrinkles in dark charcoal or a dark version of the body color. Also use the charcoal color to add that "eyeliner" under the lower rim of the eye and to define the front corner of the eye. Go back and fix any oopsies with the appropriate color to tidy things up so they're precise.
- Use black or dark charcoal to color in the nostril (inside the "V" where the two rims meet, too) and line of the mouth. Then line the rims of the nostrils and muzzle wrinkles in a light grey or light body color, whichever works best for the overall effect.
- Paint the inside of the ear with black or charcoal, then use light grey to paint in the gentle ridges inside the ear and subtle highlights. The closer these ridges are to the ear rim, the more we can incorporate the basecoat color or an ear liner color into this mixture so it blends nicely with the ear rim. For fuzzy ears, work from a good reference photo of the color you're painting. For instance, if you're painting a grulla, use a fuzzy ear reference from a grulla, not a grey or bay. So to start, paint the whole fuzzy inner ear the darkest shade indicated by the reference and let dry. Then lightly dry brush on highlight colors, with the brightest tones on the very tips. Then use a liner brush or color pencils to define strategic little hairs. Then we can add detail with a color pencil or a liner brush to paint in the ear rims in the appropriate color. Lean into your references.
- Lay in the facial shadings, underneath the skeletal and fleshy structures plus the “salt cellar," or the hollow within the zygomatic arches as well. The shade color should be most intense in the remotest areas, but diffuse into the basecoat. Examples of what to potentially shade: Underneath the zygomatic arches, the jawline, above and underneath the teardrop bone to make it "pop," under the buccinator bellies, down the middle of the nasal bone and some of the soft fleshy details from eye to muzzle. We should also shade the space between the jaw bars under the head. Overall though, choose to shade where it's strategic for the sculpture, flattering it best and being most accurate to its facial structure.
- Lay in the highlights. Think of concentrated streaks of highlight placed in very specific places and forms. Keep the pigment bright and clean. Examples of what to highlight: Each ridge of the nasal bone, the tops of the zygomatic arches, the ridge of the teardrop bone, the tops of the buccinator bellies, the jaw bars, and the jowl area beneath the eye and diffusing towards the bottom into the shaded part. Again, keep the sculpting of the sculpture in mind when choosing highlighted areas.
- Squiggle in brighter, tighter, and more concentrated highlight in strategic areas of the fleshy areas to make them appear gooshy such as around the muzzle, under the eye, the expanse between the eye and the muzzle, on the buccinator bellies, and on the jowl. Squiggles help to make these areas appear fleshy with their complex web of underlying flesh and fascia.
- Pay attention to the fleshy muzzle texture between the nostrils, too, when looking at the face from the front, shading and highlighting any crevices and contours as needed.
- Use the basecoat color to blend everything, then go back and deepen shading or brighten highlight as needed. Add extra tones and tints as needed, and continue to fudge and detail and then…
- After we’re satisfied, highlight veins, nerves, tiny fleshy details, and wrinkles.
- Lay in markings and do the eyes. Then finish with putting a dab of dark flesh color deep inside the nostrils. Be sure to shade and highlight the markings and eyes as well, avoiding a flat paintjob with these features.
Tips
- These ideas apply to both sculpture and medallion work, so have at it! They also often apply to media across the board whether acrylic, oil, pastel, pencil, or even ceramic glazing, so dive in!
- It's best we know about color theory for mixing our colors so we don't rely on just black to darken or white to lighten our colors which can skew them off track pretty quickly, depending on the situation. Instead, color theory allows us to mix better colors that are more robust and clear, and more on target. For example, rather than use white to brighten bay colors, use rusts, oranges, yellows, and reds.
- Remember that the more closely clipped the coat (like on halter horses), or on a summer coat, or the finer the coat (like on hot bloods), the more skin with peek through on the face, whether charcoal, lavender-brown, brown, or pink skin. Conversely, the thicker the coat, the less skin will peek through. So keep the nature of the coat, grooming, or season in mind when painting the face.
- Most of these techniques are easily scaled up or down with how big your sculpture or medallion is. Just be sure that as the size diminishes that precision and scale become more of an issue.
- Something to consider is that not all things in nature translate well into sculpture. For instance, a coat color may come right up to the eyes, muzzle, and inside clipped ears of a real horse, but this effect isn’t so flattering on a painted sculpture because it looks unfinished. Champagnes and similar dilutes can be particularly challenging for this reason. Really, just a bit of darker shading in these areas can do a world of good for a painted sculpture to read better.
- Some paintjobs fail to shade and highlight the face adequately, resulting in a flat, artificial look. The sculpture ends up looking like a half-finished painted model rather than a living animal. So we need to capture that look of organic flesh and we do that with a strategic placement of color and technique such as shade, highlight, mid-tones, light and dark squiggles, ridges of color and softly highlighted details to bring out the look of fleshy texture.
- Another stumble is when the artist simply paints the ears, eyes, and muzzle a flat grey with little shading or detailing, again creating a flat, unfinished appearance. The same also applies to "blacking" the face, applying flat, stark black rather than soft shadings and highlights to accentuate the look of fleshiness and boney aspects. Attention to nuance and detail makes all the difference!
- Accentuate the sculpted expression in pigment, don't work against it. Likewise, we should let the sculpture guide our creative choices...follow it, don't fight it.
- Pay attention to tonal differences characteristic of a coat pattern or characteristic for an authentic result such as sooty or pangaré.
- Use shade as an “outliner” and highlight as "pop" as a means to attract the eye to specific areas. In this manner, we can manipulate the eye to travel around the face.
- Horse faces are really tricky to paint as they characterized by both hard and soft structures that have to read right. To that end, straight lines tend to look hard and squiggly lines tend to look fleshy. Manipulate these effects to mimic bone or flesh on the head.
- Heads that are sculpted properly literally paint themselves. We just have to provide the pigment and the face takes it from there. On those that are problematic, we have to help it along a little bit, but let it guide you for a flattering result all the same.
- We can use fine liner brushes, pencil pastels, or color pencils to further detail markings, eyes, or other facial features. Keep it subtle though because stark pencil work can be distracting when set against more blended, subtle media. Always harmonize the media.
- Pay attention to details and how they could be painted. For instance, sometimes moles around the eye and on the muzzle will show up as dark spots rather than neutral ones or lighter ones, depending on the color and coat situation.
- Be sure to paint in the eyelashes if they're present, and add delicate striations to really drive the point home if you wish.
- Don’t be too timid with shade and highlight. We have to recreate the look of mass and anatomy, remember. And in the sea of sculptures with flat facial shading, anything with the lifelike pizzazz will get the attention. However, that said, don't go overboard either so the piece looks like carnival paint. There is a balance to be struck.
- A fuzzy coat can warrant highlighting and shading of the hair clumps and striations, so pay attention to hair texture here.
- Keep things diffused so they aren't harsh, literal lines. This will help the look of living flesh more than looking like a painted model.
- Not every facial structure needs to be emphasized equally or "outlined" with shadow all the time. Sometimes some sculptures do better with hinting at things instead so we should use our discretion for what works best for the sculpture. Always work in the sculpture's best interest!
- Nature doesn't care about color harmonies, so we don't have to either if we don't want to. That's to say, you can mix up your warm and cool colors as needed without having to worry about sticking with a warm palette or a cool palette.
- We should keep our pigments clean by not muddying them with too much inter-mixing or over-working. Keep all the ideas clear.
- An accurately sculpted head can tolerate a tighter treatment of pigment whereas a problematic head does better with a looser, or more generalized treatment. With a problematic head, it's also a good idea to draw more attention to the eyes, markings, and expression. Remember, we want to emphasize the great parts and minimize the questionable parts, if there are any.
- If we’re airbrushing, we can do some nice blocking-in by spraying on the highlight color from a very oblique angle from the front of the face, then spraying on shade color from a very oblique angle from under the face, allowing the sculpted elements to “catch” the pigment. This technique works really well when glazing ceramics, in particular.
- Dark parts tend to look smaller than light parts, so if a facial aspect (such as a nostril) is awkwardly large, simply keep it darker toned. Or, on the other hand, if an area is too small, use white markings or starker highlight to make them appear larger.
- Don't forget to shade and highlight large patches of white, too, like a large marking or patterned area. Having an intricately shaded color portion with a big white marking or patterned section often does better when both are similarly treated. This is especially so of bald faces where all you really have is a white face you have to make work in a lifelike way.
- The forehead has a lot of detail, so don’t simply paint it a flat color. Look for soft ripples, squiggles, and bulges of musculature. Also look for how expression influences how to shade and highlight it.
- The horse’s head has a lot of areas of subcutaneous bone so we should understand cranial anatomy to know how to treat certain areas with paint and technique.
- Don’t ignore the ears! Look for wrinkles, veining, hair growth patterns, and other details we can recreate. It doesn't necessarily have to be on the sculpture itself for us to duplicate it in pigment either.
- A face looks best if the ears, eyes, and nostrils have the same level of interest value, the same degree of treatment, so be sure to harmonize all three.
- All details don’t need the same intensity of pigment. Indeed, a life-like quality can be best served with differing intensities in strategic locations. For example, perhaps the “Y” vein on the face looks best with a brighter highlight while any veining on the jowl or ears will do better with subtler highlighting. Or maybe that "Y" vein needs varying tones to highlight it for a fleshier appearance rather than just using one highlight color. Similarly, while the eyebrow wrinkles can look good with a bolder treatment of highlight and shade, the muzzle wrinkles are more convincing with a softer, fleshier touch. So pay attention to how highlight and shadow play on the face for a living effect.
- Study the work of other artists to discover how they tackled certain aspects. Studying how they met the challenge can go far to refine our own Eye and skills.
- We should gather lots of good reference photos and consider how we would paint them on a static sculpture. Ponder where highlight and shade occur plus the look of details, squiggles, ridges, ripples, striations, and other little features. Compare and contrast, and pay attention to breed, seasonal, and individual variations. This helps us to develop a useful mental library and the freedom to express the face with broader ideas than what's expected or habitual.
- Because each face is individualistic, so should be our facial paint jobs. So approach each painted face with a new, fresh idea. Avoid habit, formula, and try to ignore what's expected by convention. We should study to find what lies beyond that proverbial box and seek to infuse novelty into each of our painted faces whenever possible.
Conclusion
Shading faces is a complicated proposition that shouldn't be treated haphazardly or carelessly. It's not an afterthought. Indeed, skillful coloration of the face can make or break a sculpture all by itself. Taking time to go the extra mile can make all the difference!
But that said, it's all within your reach, too! The horse's face is full of beautiful details and tonal changes and it's fun to capture as much as we can in our paint job. Plus it really helps to bring the sculpture to life and add expression and texture to an otherwise static statue. We also add variety and depth to our body of work, and we learn more about facial structure and nuance to boot. We should take our time then and observe observe observe then refine our methods and approaches to not only capture reality, but to accentuate it to really breathe life into the sculpture. It's fun, it's challenging, it's rewarding, and it's inspiring. What's more, it helps us to really look at a horse's face with a more observant Eye and that informs our future work in the best way. But perhaps best of all, paying attention to facial structure and detail helps us to appreciate the individuality of each horse, lending a whole lot of depth and meaning to our work. So we can face off with painting faces and come out the winner! Or even better, our subject wins because we'll have paid a lovely homage to their special individuality by honoring their unique face.
"I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality."
— Barnett Newman
(By the way, here's a really good tutorial on painting eyes here!)
