Lovely Locks: Painting A Sculpted Mane And Tail

Introduction

Ever since the sculpted mane and tail gained prominence in the early 90s, we’ve been painting away on those lovely locks with a multitude of methods, all successful more or less. And new ways are evolving every year, such as the painterly streaked approach gaining popularity today.

But it’s not easy. In fact, all the different approaches are a testament to how tricky painting hair can be as many different interpretations attempt to make sense out of its very pesky texture and its passive physics. Because if hair is hard to sculpt, it’s even harder to paint convincingly, and it just looks like we’re all still trying to figure it out. I actually hope we never do only because all the different techniques are exciting and cool!

In that spirit then, I’d like to share with you my method. Maybe you’ll pick out aspects that are helpful or maybe get you going along a new route of exploration in your own work. Either which way, let’s get going!…

The Hairy Problem

Yes, hair. Hair hair hair hair hair. Uffdah. This is probably the most difficult texture and feature to sculpt, hands down, and definitely one of the most difficult to paint. All this is due primarily to its passive physics that are chaotic, which is very hard for the human brain to mimic, it's situational, which is prone to contrived regimentation by our pattern-loving brain, and it's highly detailed with all the striations, which are often nitpicky to render. Wrap it all up then, and we have ourselves a bit of a challenging pickle.

As such, some painters simply opt to let the sculpting do the work and paint the mane and tail one flat color, while others use drybrushing or airbrushing to add in soft, generalized striations or color shifts, while still others paint streak-by-streak, heavily shading and highlighting the beautiful folds and forms in a very painterly way…and everything in between all of this.

So to tackle hair, we have to understand exactly what it is, don’t we? To start then, the mane and tail are keratinized strands that are pigmented (with color) or unpigmented (white), depending on the presence of a marking or not. And while color genetics dictate the hair color, some grooming tactics bleach or color it for whatever reasons, so be mindful of that when picking references.

Hair also comes in different textures, often breed-dependent. For instance, Arabians tend to have super-fine, silky hair while drafters can have thicker, coarser hair. As a general tendency, the “hotter the blood,” the finer the hair, which applies to Arabians, Tekes, Marwaris, Kathiawaris, Persian Arabs, and other “thin-skinned” hot bloods. In contrast, the “colder the blood,” the tendency is towards coarser hair. There are exceptions, of course, but just pay attention to texture in field study and in references. What’s more, the tail hair tends to be coarser than the mane, which can be quite fine at times (and some feathers tend to be even finer, depending on the breed. For instance, Shire feathers are rather silky while Brabant feathers are coarser and Friesian feathers are kinda in-between).

Ultimately though, the main goal is to make the hair look like hair: Wispy, striated, complex in tone, shaded and highlighted, layered, and most of all, full of “organic chaos" dictated by passive physics. Always remember that hair has passive movement which can make its configurations truly something to tackle! Movement, posture, wind, and serendipity all have their effects on hair, all of which we have to capture. Zowie! It’s a lot to juggle, and often on rather tricky shapes and textures that have been sculpted in. Ooof. But with certain artistic approaches, this is all doable. For that then, it’s smart to refer to some good references when painting hair if only to jostle loose our brain’s propensity for regimentation caused by its pattern recognition response. Because it’s shockingly easy for our hand to fall too much into a rigid pattern when it comes to painting hair, ultimately reducing the look of organic chaos and leaning more into artificiality. Like the more regimentation kicks in, the more it looks like our hair was painted with a fork, or rather it has evenly spaced striations and tendrils.

For that then, always remember that the mane and tail are comprised of countless tiny strands that all work together to drive home the look of “mane” and “tail.” What’s more, they lay independently, but they also function together as tendrils and clumps, behavior that affects how we have to paint it, too. More still, they can bunch up into twists, "cords," or also “witch’s knots” (also called “fairy knots"), which are happenstance configurations that require special attention. On top of that, the hairs that lay on the top surface tend to be the most sensitive to breezes, but the tips often are as well. 

As for coloration…goodness...the options! Lean into those references big time! Like, we have all the different different colors and tones, then we might have to factor in staining or sun bleaching, then we have the potential colorations of the different layers, then we have to factor in striations plus the interplay of colored hair or white hair if patterns are involved, and finally, we can infuse highlight and shading to punch it all up a notch. Put it altogether and the mane and tail can spin into a lot of complication very quickly. Phew!

We also have to account for volume as different breeds have different degrees of volume in their follicles. For example, Arabians, Tekes, and Marwaris tend towards less volume whereas Friesians, foofy cobs, Shetlands, Dartmoors, some drafters, and even some Morgans tend to have a profuse volume of hair. This affects how a piece is sculpted, and so how we paint it because we’ll have to contend with different textures, but also more or less hair to paint.

On that note, we also need to think in terms of layers much of the time, even if the mane and tail have been brushed out, de-clumping them. In this, different layers can exhibit different tones or coloration which we have to account for, or the different layers can move independently, creating more of an impression of wispiness. If we’re lucky, all this will have been sculpted in to the mane and tail, but if not, we can still fudge it if the formations permit it. For instance, the more generalized and “loose” the sculpting, the more likely we can add in this feature in a painterly way but the more detailed and “tight” the sculpting, the less able we are. In other words, we can allow the sculpting of the mane and tail guide our creative decisions.

But perhaps the biggest takeaway is this: We have to attend to scale as a prime directive, and so it’s important to understand that no brush, pencil, etching, nib, or other tool can actually recreate a single strand of hair even at 1:9 scale. Just think about how teensy tiny that single strand would have to be at that size and, well — we just don’t have the technology to duplicate that (yet). A single hair is just too tiny! So what we actually are painting are strands of hair, clumps of hair, working together to give us the look of wispy hair. This is an important distinction because it'll inform how we paint hair in more effective ways. In this, think instead about painting progressively finer tendrils of hair the more wispy we want to render it, more like this:

• “Micro-tendrils”: A small clump of single strands into a skinny, wispy tendril. In other words, this is the skinniest stroke our brush, nib, or pencil can manage.
• “Macro-tendrils”: Medium-sized clumps of hair that act independently of either the micro or mega tendrils, adding dimension and dynamism. 
• “Mega-tendrils”: The large tendrils that form the basic shapes of the mane and tail as it wisps out towards the ends, or the biggest swatches or "tentacles" of hair.

Of course, those are just generalizations to simplify the ideas as there’s a whole spectrum of everything in-between micro, macro, and mega tendrils. But even so, the main point is that these different types of tendrils behave differently than single strands, which we need to understand. For example, micro-tendrils are heavier than single strands but are the lightest of the three, and so are most prone to being flung round in a breeze. Then macro and mega tendrils are that much heavier and less prone to movement unless physics really warrants it. For another, tendril behavior changes whether brushed out or au naturel. Specifically, they’re more wispy and diffused when washed, de-tangled and brushed out, or they’re “sticker” together the more au naturel they are. That’s to say the more washed and brushed out they are, the more diffused the hues, tones, and white and pigmented hairs tend to be and the more micro-tendrils take over whereas the more “pasture” they are, the more they clump together into macro- and-mega-tendrils. And then there's everything in between due to all the varying circumstances. Pay attention to that in references as that can play into the narrative or movement of the sculpture. On that note, tendrils “stick together” randomly, or that’s to say that hairs of different colors, particularly pigmented hairs and white hairs, don’t segregate, but mix together, an effect we have to account for in our painting if we want to really capture the look of hair, particularly in braided hair. And finally, different degrees of fineness of hair will affect how it clumps and moves. For example, silky Arabian hair can be more prone to wispiness than drafter hair simply due to its finer texture. So overall, think in terms of skinny tendrils rather than skinny hairs, and we have a better chance at nailing the texture.

Now a concern particular to our art form is being adaptive to how the mane and tail are actually sculpted. Each sculptor tackles hair in their own way from either “looser” and more generalized to “tighter," more highly detailed and striated. Or some sculptors sculpt their hair in long continuous strands while others “break them up” more, and everything in between. This is to say, as painters, we're asked to adapt to how the sculpting is actually rendered because our primary job is to flatter the sculpture best, and that often means working with the sculpture rather than against it. This can make our job all the trickier, but this is exactly why having a big toolbox of techniques as options is so important. Indeed, one approach may not work for every sculpture so well, and being able to switch our gears a bit is just the ticket. In that spirit then, let’s get into it!…

Media

I paint my manes and tail in a multi-media approach because I find that each medium has its own bonus that contributes nicely to the overall effect. For that then, I use:

• Acrylic paint: I like Golden Fluid Acrylics and Liquitex Soft Body acrylics.
• Color pencils: I use Primscolor, Derwent, and Faber-Castell. A couple of notes about color pencils though. First, sealants tend to interact with them insofar as pale colors tend to vanish whereas golds, yellows, and ochres tend to become more garish, so color accordingly. Second, the Prismacolors are more waxy and so lay down more intense color but are prone to “bloom,” or cloudiness if applied too thickly. In contrast, the Derwents and Faber-Castells are less waxy and less prone to bloom, but lay down less intense color. So use them accordingly.
• Pastel pencils: Primarily I use The General’s 4414 White Chalk pencil.
• Conté pencils: I mostly use black, rusts, and browns.
• Testor’s Dullcote: As a sealant to reinstill “tooth” and set the pencils before progressing to the next step. Just a light dusting will do, don’t soak the surface.

Tools

Likewise, I use specific tools to apply this media, such as:

• Round brushes: In various sizes, these would have fine points and nice bellies to hold a good reservoir of paint so you don’t have to stop and re-dip your brush to break up a nice, clean continuous line.
• Airbrush: I use the Iwata HPC-BS Eclipse, bottom feeder, my faithful workhorse.
• Pencil sharpener: Use whichever sharpener gives you a fine point because that’s the trick to using the pencils, keeping a pointy point to avoid “chatter” and allow for precision.
• Blender stick: I sometimes use these to burnish the color pencils—gently! If you’re not gentle, you’ll tear up your paintjob.
• Pointed Q-tips: I use these to soften and “set back” the pastel and conté pencils. Just a couple of gentle swipes is enough otherwise you’ll blend all your work away.

Haired Out

So now that we have our media and tools, let’s use them! Now the way I paint my manes and tails is from generalized to detailed in a progression, with some back and forth at the end to make adjustments. Now I'm just going to show you a mane here, but all the ideas and techniques apply to tails and feathers, too. So here we go!…

• First pick the lightest color, or the color of the tips, and paint where your reference indicates, flat and opaque. Be precise and tidy, especially if the tips lay on the body.
• Then pick your darkest color, and paint where your reference suggests, flat and opaque. Again, be tidy and precise, especially if this color lays along the crest. For extra points, don’t paint a straight line along the crest, but paint in tiny spokes, or striations to make it look like it’s growing out naturally.
• Next, pick your medium color and paint that where the reference tells you, again being tidy and blending into both the dark and light colors as streaks rather than blunt chunks. Keep things striated, "spikey," and “hair-like” as possible where the colors meet. Now you have a blank canvas ready for finessing. (Figure 1)
• Now I take the airbrush and carefully paint in blending streaks to marry together the colors better in a softer, diffused manner. I have to be careful not to hit the body and ruin the paintjob though as I work to get in crevices or twists n' turns, so what I sometimes do, if warranted, is to bag the sculpture in a plastic grocery bag or Saran Wrap to mask it out first, or use painter’s tape to create closer masking. I’m pretty precise with the airbrush and I tend to stay away from the tips (which is why we painted our tips the lightest color), especially if they lay on the body, but I may do that masking off just in case if things are really complicated in coloration (then I clean up with acrylic brushwork later). Anyway, so once I’m done, I’m ready for detailing. (Figure 2)
• Dust lightly with Dullcote and let dry.
• Now I use conté (in this case in browns and rusts) and pastel pencils (in this case in white) to make strategic striations if the colors are warranted, softening with a pointed Q-tip in one downward gentle swipe to “set it back” more, so it doesn’t look penciled on. Just be sure to account for the flow and lay of the hair when penciling to stay consistent with the sculpting. You can even add in additional wispy details of micro-tendrils if you wish if the hair is sculpted generalized enough. When done, dust lightly with Dullcote and let dry. (Figure 3)
• It’s color pencil time! I use color pencils a lot for coloring manes and tails and I use different colors for all the variegation, highlighting, and shading. I may augment this with acrylic brushwork if I don’t have the right color for what I need. Again, you need to adapt to the lay of the sculpted mane or tail, but you can add in wispy details of micro-tendrils if the sculpting allows it. As you layer these on, you may need to dust intermittently with Dullcote to reinstate “tooth" to the surface. Use the blender stick to burnish the pencils to set them back into the paintwork more, if you wish. Then once done, dust lightly with Dullcote and let dry. (Figure 4)
• Then I added an airbrushed golden glaze to color the whites more flaxen. (Figure 5)
• Now I make adjustments, using the airbrush to blend and soften and blur, especially the starts and ends of the pencilwork, and add on more painted-on or penciled-on striations to amplify punch, depth, and more detail as the sculpting warrants. Basically what we do here is to diffuse the pencilwork so it "sits back" into the paintwork rather than looking penciled "on top." (Figure 6)
• When done, spray adequately with Dullcote and finito! You should have a beautifully colorized and wispy-looking mane and tail. (Figure 7)

Tips

There’s definitely a knack with this approach but these insights make it easier and produce better outcomes: 

• Practice! This approach definitely is done by "feel," so play around with it on a junker first.
• The airbrush needs a lot of precision and skill to use it without blasting areas of your paintwork on the body. This is where bagging and masking can be helpful if you don’t have this degree of control yet, or if the tendrils lay en masse on the body. Or you could just lean into brushwork or pencilwork more in those areas instead, it’s up to you. 
• Color pencils, and the conté, and pastels in particular, can look artificial and “painted on top” if not set back into the paintwork with blending, especially with blurring their starts and ends. To do that, I lean into the airbrush to blend those portions into the surrounding areas, especially the color pencils, so it all marries together better. But without an airbrush, you can rely more on brushwork and more pencilwork to do that blur for you. Or you could add a layer of oils if you like, if that’s one of your chosen media. Either which way, if that pencilwork isn't "sat back" into the paintwork, it can compromise the illusion of touchable, wispy, silky hair pretty quickly. So don't just lay down the pencilwork and call it a day.
• Pencils don’t always come in the colors you need, right? So just use paint and brushwork to fill that gap. Or another option is to rely on the white pastel pencil to create striations, spray with Dullcote to set it, then use the airbrush to tint the white to the color you need, and that can work like a charm, too. Then just continue with your pencilwork or brushwork as usual. But this is a nifty trick to add a lot of glow to your coloration as the white base really allows a tint to “pop.” 
• Keep those pencils sharp! You want to avoid imprecision, missed areas, or “chatter” and a pointy tip does that for you.
• Work in layers as a lot of back n’ forth work with airbrushing and brushwork and pencilwork lends complexity, glow, and depth. In essence, we don't want to see how the hair was painted per se, just that it's nicely painted.
• The white pastel pencil and white paint can be really helpful for adding wispy blending or detailing to unpigmented portions.
• If there are white unpigmented sections, this is where understanding micro-, macro-, and mega-tendrils really come into play as it blends with the pigmented portions because the blending of the two really highlights striations. We have to recognize brushed-out or pasture-rough textures as well as that will change how we paint the intersections of white and pigmented hairs. In other words, if that hair is really brushed out, that intersection can be more diffused but if it's more au naturel, it can tend to be more sharply defined into tendrils. Either which way, you can use the white pastel pencil to input the white, or you can use paint, or use both, it's up to you. (Figure 8)
• Always go with the flow of the sculpted hair, don’t fight it. However, you can add wispy detailing if you wish, as warranted.
• Think about shading in the deepest crevices and highlight on the highest points, but don’t go too crazy with this as you also have to account for the hair’s actual coloration, too. 
• What’s more, your shade and highlight colors should change as the tones change in the different areas of the hair. In other words, don’t use that dark brown color you used in the rusty portions for the blonde portions. Mix up a new blonde-shading color instead. This will keep the colors clean and clear.
• Paint like you mean it. In other words, your strokes should be bold and confident and not exhibit an imprecise, unsteady hand. Absolute clarity, cleanliness, and precision are key to a well-colorized mane and tail.
• Try to avoid colorizing the mane and tail in “chunks,” but as striations that chunk together, if that makes sense. We don’t want the hair to resemble tentacles, but look like hair.
• You can approach the mane and tail literally in their coloration or painterly with lots of shadings, highlights, and painterly striations. Either way — and everything in-between — works.
• You can paint in a highlighted sheen to the hair if you wish with pencils, conté, pastel pencils, or brushwork.
• If you do brushwork or pencilwork, you have to really commit to it. In other words, don’t just add a few striations and call it a day. That look’s too sparse and unfinished. Really dig in more thoroughly. It looks better and drives home the impression of hair better.
• Brushwork and pencilwork allows you to really play with micro-tendril behavior, so have fun with it if the sculpting allows you to.
• The real trick to this method it getting the pencilwork to not look like pencilwork, and the brushwork not to look like brushwork, and the airbrushwork not to look like airbrushwork. Like if we can immediately see how it was colorized because it’s so simplified in its application, we missed our mark. It should be complex enough to get folks wondering how we did it. That’s how finessed it should look.
• All this works equally well on feathers, mustaches, or long body hair, too.
• If you don't have an airbrush, oils are a good alternative choice for painting and glazing. If you don't use oils, try an acrylic drying retardant to give you more open time.
• If you're working with a black mane and tail, you can still highlight and shade it with grey conté or color pencils, and/or with brushwork incorporating Interference Blue. You can even use the white pastel pencil if you glaze over it with blues or purples as a highlight, or rusts or browns to marry it with the body or for sunburnt coloration.
• If you're painting a white mane and tail, again, you can still shade and highlight it with greys and greiges, and even consider tan or golden tips, especially on the tail, to denote staining.
• The colors you choose for your color pencilwork makes a huge difference...they should be as spot on to your target colors as possible if you can manage it. In other words, don't try to always change the color with glazing (with the exception of the white pencils) unless you can't help it, but pick the right color right off the bat. This allows you to maintain as much of a hint of a striation as possible rather than having to cover it too much with paint trying to change its hue.
• Layer layer layer! That's the secret to this method. So don't expect it to look good in one or two layers. For example, my finished product in Figure 7 was five layers of back and forth work.

Conclusion

Painting a lovely mane and tail does take some doing, but it’s all within our reach with a bit of know-how and practice. And there are many ways to get to a beautiful result, so this is just one of many methods that work equally well. But hopefully this tutorial gave you new ideas to play with, which is one of the benefits of sharing our methods. 

Just be sure to practice a bit with this approach on a junker first as it takes a bit of finessing to get it all married together nicely. But above all, be patient and meticulous. This technique takes time to build up the layers and complexity for it to read well enough, so just work through each step carefully.

So practice, be meticulous and precise, blur and blend, and you’ll be creating gorgeous hair in no time! And this method can be a bit meditative, too, especially the pencilwork. And it’s so cool to see the layers stack on each other so nicely, bringing your hair to life right in front of you eyes! So take what you will from this tutorial and see if you can make it work for you, too. The truth is, this method, while a bit tricky, is also a ton of fun and so applying some of these ideas may help you get really haired out, but in a good way! Indeedy, painting this imposing texture isn't such a hairy proposition as it may first seem! With a bit of practice and know-how, you can be whipping up terrific tresses toot sweet!

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?” – George Bernard Shaw

Lovely Locks: Painting A Sculpted Mane And Tail