Introduction
Sometimes all we need to jumpstart our own rethinking or exploration is to simply look at things from a different perspective. And a lot of these perspectives can come from other peoples’ methods, ideas, or tips on how they do everyday things, or in our case, how they paint realistic equine sculptures. Beginners, in particular, are really benefitted from this as many of the little things seasoned artists take for granted can be a complete game-changer for a newbie!
So in this spirit, let’s explore my five top tips for painting our pieces more effectively, easily, and realistically. These are things routine for me, but maybe for you, they could make all the difference to improve your game or switch your gears! One of the best things about lots of artists in a niche is that means there are many different brains working similar problems, and that spells one thing: Innovation! But that only works if we share what we've learned, which I happen to think is a smart thing to do in the long run. Why? Because when we share our processes with others, they make it their own and who knows what we'll learn in turn from them as they make advances or adaptations! It's a win win! Undeniably, when it comes to developing skillsets, knowledge is power, and so the more knowledge that's shared, the more shared power there is to go around!
Now these tips entail painting primarily in acrylic paint but a lot of these ideas could apply to other media like oils, pastels, or color pencils with a bit of tweaking. So take from these tips what you will and make them your own, and hopefully you’ll find them helpful! So let’s go!...
White Markings
Do you struggle with the opacity of your white markings? I think we all do to some extent, don't we? Uffdah. Smooth, even, flush, opaque white is just The Struggle of the Century for us it seems. Well, there are a couple of ways to make it easier!
First, consider the kind of white paint you use. Yes...it does make a difference, a big one! Different brands and consistencies just have different coverage abililties, and after trying quite a few, I've found two that work the best for me. For starters, the best one is Saint Titanium White by Stuart Semple, available from Culture Hustle. This white paint has a great fluid consistency and can be made opaque, even when thinned, in about three layers because it’s so highly pigmented. It's great stuff! (However, since it's made-to-order, it can take a long long while to get, so just keep that in mind.) Then for the second one, Golden Fluid Acrylics Titanium White has great opacity too and a very usable consistency, but, it does take more layers than the Saint white, about four to six on average. (But it's far easier and faster to get, so it makes a terrific alternative to the Culture Hustle White.) With both though, just thin a bit with clean water to about the consistency of ink or between 1% and 2% milk, and you're good to go! Just be sure to use a nice, soft, clean brush that holds a good tip and has a decent length of bristle to hold a good well of paint. I find that rounds work really well across the board, as do filberts in certain situations. Now there's a Goldilock's Zone to both consistency and to brushing technique, so be sure to practice on a junker before tackling your white markings on your actual model. But overall, those two are the strongest acrylic whites I've found so far and both glide on like a dream to boot.
Second, some artists add a bit of white gesso to their first couple of layers to beef up the opacity, then finish with a layer or two of pure paint. Gesso does change the consistency a little bit, so practice with it on a junker. In particular, it can create a pebbly, grainy finish if you aren't careful or futz with it too long, so play around with it first. Just don’t leave gesso as the final surface though because it attracts grime and discolors with time so end your session with at least one layer of actual paint on the top, ideally two layers. But once you learn how to use this technique well, it can help you achieve a nice opacity pretty quickly. For this then, I recommend Liquitex Acrylic Gesso in white. That said though, if you're using the Saint White or even the Golden White, gesso isn't really that necessary, so it's up to you to use this method or not when painting with those Whites.
Just remember this: It's better to do more passes with a thinner consistency than just a few with a thicker consistency, just like with primer. So be methodical and patient. Take your time. To that, you want to avoid three primary things: Brushstrokes, pooling, and border ridges. Brushstrokes happen when the consistency is too thick or if you've futzed with a drying area for too long. Pooling happens when the consistency is too thin and you've dabbed on too much paint onto the surface. (What's more, when the pool dries, it can leave a blister of texture that's a real bother to sand down to remove.) Really too-thin paint can also lead to "micro-pooling" when the paint just doesn't stick well to the surface and beads up on you. As for border ridges, they happen when there wasn't enough attention to thin, flush layers and an even coating of paint on the entire marking, producing a ridge of paint along the perimeter of the marking or pattern. So yes, doing nice white markings takes time, a lot of practice, hard won experience, and a goodly degree of "feel," but it's all learnable so practice practice practice on a junker! You can do it!
And lastly, consider muting your whites with a snidge of Burnt Umber or griege to give a more life-like off-white effect to the overall finish. Like rethink using white straight out of the bottle to instead tone it down a bit. It adds more realism plus it gives you "a place to go" with any highlighting you'd like to do on your white areas like on the face, in hair, and elsewhere. It can make for such a beautiful, living effect, often much more effectively than just straight white.
Flesh Tones
Concocting flesh colors for unpigmented skin is tricky, that’s for sure. But with a little bit of know-how, it’s not only doable, it’s adaptable. And that last bit is important because horse skin color varies between individuals from an orangey-tone to even a cotton-candy tone. In other words, there is no one tone that’s correct, it’s a spectrum. To that end then, amass some references to develop a library of options for either some variety or to find the tone(s) that most appeal to you.
Any which way, a down and dirty easy way to mix up a quick flesh tone is with Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. You can vary the ratio for shade or highlight colors, too. And you can add either Raw Sienna or Burnt Umber for some variety if you want.
Now to mix a from-scratch flesh tone, you’ll be mixing red, yellow, blue, and white, then simply playing with the ratios to get the tone you want. What you're essentially doing is first mixing a kind of brown with a complementary mix then adjusting it into flesh tones. Now one may wonder why go about it "the hard way" when you can bang out a serviceable flesh tone with just Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. But the benefit from doing it from scratch is you have a ton more versatility and adaptability to match anything your reference shows. Like if you lean into the yellow, you’ll get a more orangey tone or if you lean into the red, you’ll get the cotton-candy tone, then add some blue and you get a darker, more neutral flesh tone. You can't really do that with just Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. So play with mixing from scratch to practice targeting the hues from various references and you'll develop a super helpful skillset. And practice is important because a common error is to make flesh tones too red, too yellow, too orange, or too pigmented or not pigmented enough. There’s several sweet spots with flesh tones so play around with it all to find them.
As for the colors themselves, I recommend going with a warm yellow (orange-leaning, like a non-cadmium Yellow Deep, Yellow Oxide, or Ochre), a cool red (purple-leaning and therefore blue-leaning, like Naphthol Crimson or a non-cadmium Red medium or deep), and a warmer blue (purple-leaning, therefore red-leaning, like French Ultramarine Blue), with good ol’ Titanium White as a tinting agent. And you can add Burnt Umber in the mix, too, to shift it duller and browner, or Burnt Sienna to shift it more rusty and blushed. But try different reds, yellows, whites, and blues for different results as each one adds its own spin, and maybe you’d like a different array more. For instance, substituting with a warm red like Pyrrole Red can render beautiful results, too, so don’t be afraid to experiment with colors. And sometimes, some flesh tones on horses are on the cool side, warranting a cooler array of hues to mix up. So pay attention, be adaptive, practice, and you got this! Oh, and consider shading and highlighting your fleshy areas such as on the face like around the eyes and muzzle. This can really heighten realism and a sense of touchable fleshiness.
Brushes
The types of brushes you use for certain things really do count! Indeed, they alone can make or break your results. For instance, when painting markings, ticking, patterns, eyes, hooves, manes and tails and feathers, aim for rounds that have hyperfine, tiny perfect points but with long bristles and “big bellies” that’ll hold a goodly reservoir of paint so you don’t have to keep redipping every two seconds. This allows you to keep working or to continue an unbroken line, avoiding having to re-dip and restart, creating a messy, imprecise result. Filberts are also a good choice because their flat, rounded edge which can be very useful for blending colors and achieving a smooth surface. What’s more, make sure these brushes are soft soft soft to help dampen brush strokes and textures, especially so with markings and patterns of white. And take care of your brushes, cleaning them thoroughly after use so paint doesn’t creep into the ferrule to dry up there and spread apart the bristles, and allow the brush to dry laying on its side, not upright. Plus always store them handle-side down so their bristles aren’t bent or splayed.
Believe it or not, beaten up old stencil brushes can be your best friend when painting realistic horses! Like, they can be used as a randomizing tool to generate a more organic pattern for sabinos, roans, appaloosa mottling or splotching, and other such effects. Similarly, don’t overlook the tried and true use of a toothbrush to create speckling, roaning, or fleabites! Use both with watered down paint to create a randomized template to refine further with a fine brush and paint. But going about it this way will help to create more organic randomness for you, helping to prevent that dreaded artificial look of regimentation and formula. Truly, one of the worst enemies of painting realistic horses is regimentation, or a too uniform interpretation of dappling, ticking, fleabites, ragged patterns, roaning, mottling and other such organically randomized effects. Absolutely, one of the biggest tricks and challenges in paintwork is achieving that genetic, organic "luck of the draw" look to such things. But if you learn to use a ragged stencil brush and a toothbrush as a template, you can often achieve a more convincing, more "organically chaotic" result. What's more, a lot of painters, especially those who work in oil, use beaten up small brushes to paint dapples with great success, so don't be so quick to throw out that mashed up little brush! Instead, put it to work if you can.
Now going on a tangent for oil painting, make-up brushes are a real boon! Yes! Make-up brushes! In particular, the E.L.F. brushes are often the best choices because they're cheap (on average about $2-$4 per brush), easily found (like at CVS or the E.L.F website), a great texture, and they don't shed. Just a solid choice at a fraction of the price of an equivalent artist's brush. For instance, I like the E.L.F. Eye crease brush ($3) as a mop brush for buffing small scales or precision areas on big scales, being the perfect size, density, spring, and softness. And I like the E.L.F. Small smudge brush ($6) for dappling, hooves, dun factors, leg detailing, and facial painting in oils. It's also a great drybrushing brush for acrylics though, like for detailing, hooves, dun factoring, and dappling, etc. But yeah...don't overlook make-up brushes or nail art brushes for what we do! Often, they're the better choice and at much more affordable prices!
Pencils
A nifty medium for manes, tails, feathering, hooves, and dappling (of any kind) and even dun factors are color pencils. Yes! Colored pencils! They come in an array of hues and offer you a tremendous degree of control and subtlety that’s tricky to achieve with brushes and paint, which can look “painted on” if not carefully done. For instance, I like to airbrush or drybrush in my tonal changes or dapples, then spray with Dullcote and let dry. Then go in with color pencils to detail out the hair striations which produces a beautiful wispy effect, or detail or amplify dapples, and all without looking “painted on.” You can even lightly burnish the color pencils with a smudge stick like what you’d use for charcoal pencil to even out the grain a bit more. Then Dullcote again and you can layer paint on top to "set that back" even more. The only real trick to them is to use the right colors and, more importantly, to keep the pencil tips sharp for a nice line. Also, don’t press down too hard or you’ll tear your underlying paint layers. And you can even intermix them with brushwork, too, for some pretty complex effects, given you use Dullcote to give the surface some "tooth" again. As for the brand I prefer, I like Derwents over Prismacolor as the Derwents aren't so waxy, being more pigmented. But Prismacolors work okay if that's all you have. But also consider Faber-Castells and Holbeins and Caran d'Aches, depending on what you prefer, because these are better than Prismacolors, too.
Along those lines, pastel or chalk pencils work great, too, especially for dapples and facial shadings. Use that smudge stick or pointed Q-tips to soften them if you wish, too (the Q-tips often work better because they're softer). The only hitch to these is that they don’t come in too many colors, but if you use the white one, you can spray over it with Dullcote to fix it down, then tint it with overlying colored glazes for a very luminescent effect. As for that white one, I like the General's White Chalk #4414 pencil best. It's great for pale dapples and detailing (like on the face, legs, "ghost trails," etc.), and in manes and tails. Just be sure to Dullcote spray these types of pencils first before proceeding with further painting or glazing, or they'll just dissolve away or lift off.
Hooves
Hooves are some of the trickiest aspects of horsedom to render in paint. Why is that? Well, when you really break them down, they’re a complex blend of tones, details, and effects on a small area, but on a circular continuum around the hoof wall. They also have a "translucent" quality to them, a kind of luminescence that's important to capture. They can be stained with environmental relics, too, adding complicated details and effects into the mix. All this means we need to be extremely precise and detailed but also very sensitive to tone and impression at the same time, all the while "painting on the round." If we aren’t careful then, they can look sloppily done or, alternately, look too formulaic and artificial, like the horse lived in a “reality vacuum," or on the other hand, the different areas of our hoof won't seem cohesive together. So we need to hit that balance between “organic chaos," structure, and cohesiveness in order to capture the intricacies of the hoof wall "on the round." So what does that mean? A lot of futzing, that’s what! Ack! But it’s all doable with some insights and methods.
For one, follow your references religiously for the colorations, effects, details, and striping on your hooves. For example, striping only happens in certain conditions, not all willy nilly. Like ermine spots on the coronet can birth a stripe, but then again, appaloosas have their own tendencies in hoof striping we should be aware of, too. The point is, details like stripes aren’t random but follow some basic tendencies we should be sensitive to in our references. What's more, every hoof is different so really lean into your references and away from habit and formula. For another, the medium we use to paint hooves can make a big difference, based on our own preferences. For instance, some oil painters prefer to paint their details, like hooves, in acrylics while others prefer to continue with oils. The point is, if you’re really struggling with painting your hooves, it may not necessarily be the method you’re using, but the medium. So experiment to see what might work better for you because you can use oils, acrylics, pastels, color pencils, inks, and even conte crayon or charcoal pencils — or a mixed media approach with a bunch of them — to color your hooves. Indeed, with hooves it’s whatever works!
So to maybe help your own explorations along, here’s how I paint hooves nowadays for some hopefully helpful ideas. I most often use acrylic paint and color pencils, but sometimes I'll throw in other media as needed like oils, charcoal, or pastel pencils. I’ll use a pale hoof as the example but the same ideas can apply to dark hooves, too, as follows:
- First: With a brush and paint, paint the whole hoof its main color, in this case a yellowish light tan color. Let that dry. (Lean into your references as "shell" colors vary.)
- Second: With a brush and paint, paint on the tonal shifts and gradations, around the whole hoof. These are the big ideas of color blocking on the hoof wall. For instance, with a polished clean show hoof I may make the hoof around the coronet lighter and darker around the rim whereas on a pasture hoof, I may do the opposite. So look for color gradations, patches, and other effects on your references and paint them in now, sticking to the big ideas.
- Third: With a brush and paint, add in detail like striations, hoof rings, and other more specific discolorations. Be mindful of organic randomness and what your references are telling you. Also be very sensitive to the tones you’re using because they can really convey “hoofwall” all by themselves. However, avoid things like rusty-colored streaks or reddish splotches as this indicates bruising inside the foot.
- Fourth: Start to add in stripes (if present), varying their tones, intensities, widths and striations, leaning into your references. You can start to do this by watering down blacks, browns, greys, and charcoals and striping them on, keeping them straight and parallel to the dorsal aspect of the hoofwall and the angle of the heel at all times. Remember, striping runs inside the hoof tubules, so any deviation away from that parallel origination indicates a major problem with the hoof tubules of the wall. Let all that dry.
- Fifth: Go back over the stripes to “set them back” into the paintwork so they look embedded rather than “painted on.” That’s to say striping has a “bruised,” embedded look to them, not a “floating on top” appearance. So we can “set them back” by adjusting their tones. For example, a duller, more pastel charcoal looks more embedded than a straight, clean black. Does that make sense? We can also add details into them like striations that can make them look more organic and “grown” rather than painted-on. Make more adjustments as you see fit, then let it all dry and spray with Dullcote to add “tooth” back into the surface.
- Sixth: Now I take color pencils and add more subtle and soft striations and detailing to really take it home. I can burnish the color pencils with a smudger, too, to smooth out their pigment sometimes. I may also use pastel pencils for softer, smudgier effects on occasion.
- Seventh: Then I’ll lightly spray again with Dullcote, and make more adjustments with paint or pencils, doing lots of back ’n’ forth to achieve the embedded, detailed, and organic “grown” look I want until I’m satisfied. (No wonder why painting hooves takes so long!) When done, I’ll simply seal them when I do the final all-over finishing spray with Dullcote.
- Eighth: Depending on the type of grooming involved, I may leave as-is (if pasture rough) or gloss with Liquitex Gloss Varnish (if show groomed). And voilá—finito! It only took ten bajillion hours!
- Note: Don’t forget the chalky, pale periople under the coronet! And don’t overlook green staining from the grass or manure either, or how dirt stains stick to the waxy hoofwall. So pay close attention to your references and be mindful of environmental and situational context with your colorations and detailing.
All this said though, the types of brushes you use to paint hooves can be critical. Again, I like to use rounds of various sizes (sizes 0-4) with good points and long bristles with “big bellies” to really hold a good well of paint so I don’t have to stop and re-dip. But small filberts (in sizes 2-4) are immensely handy, too, for applying the overall color and also for swatches of coloration and blending them together. Also handy is that E.L.F. Small smudge brush which can afford you a lot of smudging ability with a lot of control.
Also think about painting technique. Like besides brushing the paints on, also consider drybrushing and wet-on-wet techniques to flesh out your effects and details. You can even use an airbrush on occasion if you can really control it well enough.
Bonus Tip: Reference Images
Of course using references is important to what we do, indeed, it’s fundamental! But even more, knowing how to manipulate our references in a photo editing program can make them even more accurate and powerful for you. For starters, knowing how to correct their color, lighting, and saturation is key for preparing them for use as a painting reference (Recommended reading: Color Conniptions: Learning How To See Color Accurately). That’s to say we just can’t use a reference right out of the gate. We need to check it to make sure the color is accurate, the lighting is optimum, and the saturation levels are correct before we jump in.
What’s more, we should know how to grayscale our references to reduce such things as dappling patterns, white patterns, and spotted patterns down to more simplistic terms which can really help us interpret the patterns more accurately on our model.
But perhaps most powerful of all, learning how to invert the darks and lights on our references can yield extremely helpful insights into white patterns and spotting patterns, and especially of dappling patterns no matter how complicated. Truly, inverting a dappling reference can be a key insight into getting the pattern more correct on our piece.
Conclusion
So there ya go, my top five tips (plus one!) for painting realistic equine sculptures! Think about playing around with some or all of them to augment your own skillset to maybe bump your painting up a notch or two! Or maybe all they do is get you thinking in a new way about your own painting methods, and off you go in new directions! And that can be tremendously important to do from time to time.
Because the gist of all this is to stay open to new ideas and methods, always. We all have our own ways of doing things — our own habits, formulas, biases, comfort zones, and conventions that tell us when our work looks correct and done. But the thing is, all this can be misinformed right under our noses if we aren’t careful to pick them apart and reconsider them from time to time with new ideas and techniques, even new media. So we should stay a learner and never get too comfortable with our own ways of doing things otherwise we risk creative plateaus and artistic traps like dated work and skews. Likewise, if we’re painting things with the same formulas repeatedly — when life is all about diversity, variety, options, and “organic chaos” — we risk a homogenized portfolio that can become boring and increasingly irrelevant. We don’t want that! So consider taking some classes and workshops, reading techniques articles and watching some how-to videos, and generally rattling our own cage every so often to keep our work evolving, fresh, and current. Really, no matter how long we've been at this, there's always room to grow!
And for three dollops of unsolicited best advice, I would suggest, first, chasing after your inspirations without becoming a slave to them and, second, knowing exactly who matters most in your creative journey, and third, turning your intimidations into inspirations with a little shift in your perspective. Armed with this trifecta, you're well on your way to sustained momentum in both your creativity and enjoyment no matter what potholes you encounter. Because — yes — we all have to deal with our own various potholes in our creative adventures and it's how we navigate them that can often spell the difference between our steadfast enthusiasm or our bitter disillusionment, so give it a good ponder. You owe it to yourself and your art to seat your paradigm squarely on those notions that foster your artistry best! Never forget that in all space and time, your art is wholly unique, and wholly unique just to you. You are the one and only conduit for it to come into the world, so do yourself a favor: Always remember just how special and precious your Voice truly is so joyously use it!
Wrap it all up then and this kind of approach can keep our painting exploratory and experimental, helping to keep our efforts exciting and our portfolio interesting. But most of all, we’ll probably find a new satisfaction in our efforts when we approach our painting with fresh curiosity rather than routine. Without a doubt, learning something new — and happily surprising ourselves int he process — is a great feeling, an addictive feeling, and that can feed on itself to spin our paintwork into enticing new realms of realism and artistry! And that’s definitely worth a big high five! *slap* Go, you!
