Painting In The Dark: The Right Way To Paint Wrong Part II

 

Introduction to Part II

We're back with my grand experiment of oil painting Ta'alaq's white-grey color dark to light. In Part I, I talked about the goal and the initial primer and basecoat layers. I also talked a lot about oil paints and how they dry because that's often a question that folks have when it comes to this kind of paint. Besides, we need to know a bit more about our chosen medium if we're going to avoid problems later, right? As for myself, I don't usually use driers or other mediums. Instead, I lean into the linseed oil as a medium and alkyds if I want to speed anything up. But for the most part, I work with oils' natural drying time rather than trying to force anything as a matter of course, but I have that luxury, don't I? I don't paint for a deadline so I can let something sit for weeks or months if need be. So if you need your oil paints to dry faster, consider doing a deep dive into the links provided in Part I as there's a lot of good stuff there. And, as always, experiment on junkers to get a feel for things and to see how they perform before using that stuff on your actual piece. Who needs a headache, right?

Anyway, okay...so as a reminder, here's where I started: Ta'alaq in charcoal grey done with an alkyd paint first layer...

So now that we're at the launch site, let's blast off!...FOOM!...

SECOND AND THIRD LAYERS

Now there are two things I wanted to avoid with this dark-to-light approach. First was a wet-horse effect that’s easy to stumble into with this method, especially with a white-grey. If I wasn’t intense and careful enough with the progressive layers of White then, he’d look like a white horse hit with a hose rather than a dark-skinned grey horse with a fine coat. So there was that tightrope to walk. But there was another: It’s alarmingly easy to slide into stylization with this technique by “outlining” the muscles in dark grey by only painting the “plateaus” of the muscle surfaces and not getting adequately into the muscle grooves, if that makes any sense. So I had to make sure I painted White into those crevices well enough so he’d look realistic rather than “outlined,” making for yet another balancing act. In short, there were a couple of ways I could royally hose this up, both entirely dependent on how savvy I was in progressively applying the White. A lot of squinting would be involved with this guy, a trick you can use to generalize the look of what you're doing for a more objective view.

As for the colors I’m using for the actual painting, the white is Gamblin Fast Dry Titanium White because it dries a lot faster than Windsor & Newton Titanium White. Really, the latter can take up to two weeks to dry and I just don’t want to deal with that with all the layers I'll need, so I’m opting for the Fast Dry option. 

Why did I opt for that when there’s the even faster-drying Gamblin FastMatte Titanium White? Why that choice? Well, because the FastMatte paint uses an alkyd resin as a quick-drying binder whereas the Fast Dry uses linseed oil as a binder, but it's modified to make its polymerization process happen faster. And I like that linseed oil consistency better than the alkyd consistency as it's more luminous and smear-y, more like beautiful oil paint…because, well, it is oil paint. That wasn't an issue with the alkyd Ivory Black because that was just the basecoat. But for actual finessed smearing around of paint, I prefer the linseed oil base for "feel" and effect. So Fast Dry White it was. Now as for the dry time difference between Fast Dry and FastMatte, the Fast Dry is right in between the FastMatte and normal Titanium White, and I can live with that. Not as speedy as the FastMatte, but I figured it could work close to the class timeline all the same. 

 

*Note: FastMatte was discontinued in 2024. Doh! There is a Gamblin Quick Dry White that uses an alkali refined linseed oil to dry quickly, being nearly the same product as the Fast Dry.

The trick to layering on the progressive opacity of the White was two-fold. First, you need excellent lighting. I highly recommend the Redgrass studio light. It's not cheap at nearly $300 but it has been a game changer for me for nailing tones, effects, intensities, and colors far more accurately, and with far less eye strain and a lot more clarity. If you don't want something so expensive though, try an Ott Light. These are fantastic as well and will really be one of your best tools in your painting studio. Because when it comes to painting, lighting is everything! Your paintjobs will only be as good as your lighting! Indeed, your lighting, your paint, and your brushes are your painting success trifecta! Get the best you can afford. But one caution with lighting: A lot of lighting today, particularly LED lighting, has adjustable "temperatures," those usually being natural (neutral), "warm" (skews to the reds and golds) and "cool" tones (skews to the blues and greens). So make sure the temperature of all your lighting is all the same if you use multiple lamps, and ideally with the natural setting. Like don't mix warm and cool light and expect to ping your tones accurately. Those temperature differences will confuse your brain and hose up your colors, and right under your nose. So pick one temperature and stick with it for all your lights, whether natural, cool, or warm. In this then, don't mix incandescent and LED lighting as the former skews to the warm spectrum and the latter to the cool spectrum (unless it's adjustable into a warm setting). As for the second trick with the White opacity, having a "gas pedal" with its intensity was useful. For that then, I found myself drybrushing a lot for the control it afforded. So how did I do it? I just put a bit of paint on my brush, brushed a bit of it out on a shop towel (use this specific brand because it doesn't shed) and proceeded to strategically smear it onto the surface. If I needed to buff it to even it out, I simply used an E.L.F. Eye Crease brush because its size gave me more control in tight areas (and it also doesn't shed and it costs only $3!). In fact, E.L.F. make-up brushes make great buffing and drybrushing tools for oils! I use them almost exclusively now when I oil paint.

However, after all was said and done, after even two layers, the result was icky. Like seriously stupid, being all patchy and totally wrong! Aaaaah! What a mess! Oils don't drybrush like acrylics, like not at all! Instead of setting down paint, you just smear it around, creating "donuts" of color and unevenness, at least in large expanses. Blast it! It works fine in small swatches, but not large ones. Darn it! So here's where I ended up...

Not happy. So not happy with this result! But in a roundabout way, this was actually a good thing! Why? Well, I chatted with Heather about some solutions, and she suggested a couple of glazes to fix the problem. Glazes! Never in my life would I have thought to use glazes to fix this problem, but of course! So that's why getting in the weeds was a good thing: I learned something extremely useful I wouldn't have learned any other way! This is just another example of how FAFO can be so helpful in your long game by burbling up solutions in unexpected ways. Really, if I hadn't screwed this up so badly, I would never have learned that glazes can be a fix, and believe me, that morsel is now neatly tucked into my bag of tricks!

So now I'm wondering if glazes were the answer from the beginning! I may have to retry this approach again, but starting out with glazes rather than drybrushing? Hmmm. I shall cogitate that.

FOURTH, FIFTH AND SIXTH LAYERS

So after an off-white glaze made of Titanium White, Ivory Black, and Burnt Umber, his patchiness was evened out and now I also had an off-white base to strategically lighten for highlight. I'm still debating if I'm going to add some shading into him as well at this point, as his dark base was supposed to do that. But where I am now, that kinda got kiboshed so, yeah...I think I'll add in some strategic shadowing to add oomph and mass. Anyway, here's where I ended up after the first glaze pass...

He's darker in life than he appears in the photo, he's that off-white. So I had to let that dry for a few days then I went in with the second corrective glaze, a dark glaze made of Ivory Black, Burnt Umber with a touch of Titanium White that I applied in strategic areas for his dark skin...

Now I think I'll continue by adding another darker off-white glaze layer. I just want him darker so I have more room to play around with the Whites more. So using Titanium White, Ivory Black, and Burnt Umber in a darker mix, this is what I ended up with...

Now I think I'm finally ready to restart in earnest. Phew! My plan still is to add progressive and strategic layers of fast-dry Titanium White mixed with MicroPearl to add lighter areas and highlights but this time not with drybrushing. No no no! Said like Edna Mode, "No drybrushing!" Instead I'm going to proceed with the paint-n-buff approach Heather taught us. That is you just get the paint on there with a brush then carefully buff it out with a mop brush. But I'm going to do it in a highly controlled way...hopefully. We'll see how that works! Pray for me!

Regardless, I think those E.L.F. eye crease brushes will be instrumental here because their smaller size allows me to buff with greater precision. In essence, they're just small mops. Like I want to highlight the tops of certain muscles, but on a Classic size like this guy, a big ol' mop brush would be overkill. So fingers crossed!...here I go!...

SEVENTH LAYER

I'm bound and determined to make this approach work, darn it! There has to be a way, right? So this is all FAFO as I fire shots in the dark to see what works. I have to admit that I'm still getting used to oils smear-y texture. I'm so used to acrylics' "stickiness" insofar as you lay down a color and it's on there. Not so with oils. And you want to keep your oil layers thin for smoothness and shorter drying times, so you work more in like Photoshop layers, if that makes any sense. Then letting each layer dry before proceeding helps to keep things clean and punchy otherwise effects can get too diffused or muddy. Like it's temping to just lay down more paint to make a correction, but that's exactly the wrong thing to do! You risk over-diffusion, speckling, brushstrokes, and long drying times if you use too much paint in one go. Let it dry, then proceed. So anyway, here's where I am now with the following restarted layer of White and MicroPearl on him...

As you can see, I'm re-strategizing my approach insofar as I'm approaching him now as dabbing an off-white greige onto key areas and then buffing it smooth. This is producing a skim of pale greige but not in the patchy, icky way that drybrushing deposited. It's much more even. But even now, I can tell this is going to take a lot of layers. And I just have to trust the process. Really trust that process...because right now? He doesn't look so good, does he? A bit grainy and uneven, I grant you. But with additional layers buffed out, it should all make sense little by little! But note the dark skin showing through in certain parts like the elbow, flank, the base of the ears, and areas of the face? That's the whole point of going this direction, of allowing the dark "skin" to echo in the white coat in an organic, natural way. So we'll see how that pans out. As for his off-white greige color, it's Titanium White (Gamblin Fast Dry Titanium White) mixed with a snidge of Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black. I mixed the Umbers together to create a neutral brown which would then work with the Ivory Black to skew the White away from pure White in the way I wanted...a neutral whisper of a grey in the greige spectrum. And then I also mixed in some PearlEx MicroPearl and then two drops of linseed oil to reanimate the paint into the proper buttery, fatty texture. The brushes I used were a #7 filbert to dab on the paint and a #6 make-up puffy brush as a buffer. But overall, this approach doesn't offer the exact amount of precision and control I was hoping for, but maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe the full expression of my vision can't come until the last couple of coats and I'm expecting too much, too early. Probably the case. I need to be patient and methodically work in stages with this approach, and trust that dang process. You see, I've discovered that predominantly white horses aren't so easy in oils...in fact, they're darn tricky! At least going at it from this direction, dark to light. Any which way, I'm hoping that this new fresh way of applying the White layers will work better. But then again, it could all end in tears. Abject failure is always on the table.

EIGHTH TO TENTH LAYERS

So in these layers, I just continued with business as usual, layering on the off-white to build up the layers. So far then, this is three layers of off-white, done in the dab 'n' buff method, over and over again.

Lookie there...my idea is working! This dark to light direction can be done! But it's not over 'till it's over, right? So let's see where all this takes me. Now that said, I am coming pretty close to his pure-White and mica highlights to finish this stage off, but I think one or two more layers of griege will be just the ticket. Then after that, his dapples and darkened legs. Now you may be wondering why I'm not doing his dappled areas along with all this white work, and that would be a good question. The answer is three-fold. First, it's above my skill level right now. I think I don't have that level of control yet, and it would just end up being a big mess. Artist, know your limitations so you can either blow past them or stay within them, and know the difference! Second, it would invite creep, and I need those dappled portions to stay discreet and contained. And third, I want to create a grainy look to the dappled areas for realism, but that's very difficult to do with a wet "ground." So if I just do all the white work, let that dry, then go back in with he dappling and dark legs, I think I'll have a lot more control and realism. Well, that's the plan. It could all go sideways.

I do have to admit something though...as much as I adore oils, the issue of the handhold is a real annoyance to me. Like those forelegs. After his body dries, I have to go back in onto his forelegs to catch them up to the body, and that really strokes my fur backwards. I want to move forwards, not backwards! Argh! But boo hoo for me...I'm just being a big stupidity whiney baby waby. The truth is, it's a small price for all the benes oils offer. Get over it, Sarah, and just play along. Patience, embrace patience. Live the mantra!

Anyway, here he is with all his off-white griege applied followed by the pure-White/MicroPearl highlights on his body for dimension. Didn't the effect just turn out so marvy?! I am flabbergasted at how well it worked! I honestly didn't expect it to go as well as it did! So then I added on his facial work, which is playtime for me. I love shading and highlighting the face because you can achieve the most ethereal, subtle effects that look so touchable and thin-skinned. So here he is with all this on him...yay!...

So now 'tis time to add on his dappling and dark legs! Yes, remember, he's a light dapple grey, not a white-grey, so I have to get those darks on there. I have to say though...I know. Because I kinda feel like I'll be ruining him, too, marring all that beautiful white work. I'm so tempted to stop here. But no! I must stay on target because I need those lessons. He has a lot more to teach me and I'm intent on absorbing it all. So next time, we dive into darks and dappling!

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

–Maya Angelou

Painting In The Dark: The Right Way To Paint Wrong Part II

Painting In The Dark: The Right Way To Paint Wrong Part I

 

Introduction to Part I

Back in September 2025, I took a second round of the grey painting class lead by Heather Bullach, oil painter and teacher extraordinaire. My first round with this class back in 2023 was transformative, but it took me nearly two years to finish my lesson horse, Wahy (pronounced “why-he-on” which is Arabic for “revelation”). He just had so much to teach me, it took me that long of intermittent work to figure it out and for my subroutines to digest it all. But learned it all I did, and I learned it so well that I naturally decided to dive in again to put his lessons to work in a new way, on Ta’alaq (pronounced “ta-alikun” which means “brilliance” or “sparkle” in Arabic). How so in a new way? Well, as a much lighter shade of dapple grey, a white-grey, because I thought this would provide a new challenge unlike what heavily-dappled Wahy presented and I was eager to test my new skills. 

But lo…did this turn into an unexpected twists n’ turns journey of discovery and hard-won revelations! As such, I’d like to take you along with me on this curious adventure in the hopes that maybe you’ll find some of what I explored helpful and inspiring. And if you’d like to take one of Heather’s wonderful oil painting classes, go here to learn more. And don’t worry, she makes oils completely friendly, easy, affordable, and fun! And no icky chemicals! Yay!

So let’s just dive right in and get this party started!...

The Goal

Out of all the types of grey to choose from, why did I chose this particular super-light phase of grey? Well, for two primary reasons. First, I love the look of dark skin peeking out from underneath a fine coat, sometimes found around the elbow, flank, chest area, base of the ears and such sometimes seen on “thin skinned” breeds like the Amazigh, Arabian, Teke, and Marwari. I just think it’s cool plus it’s a real challenge to capture effectively in a paintjob so it looks like dark skin and not just paint shading of some kind. I’ve only done it a couple of times (timidly) on my own work previously, and more boldly on a 2025 NaReViMo horse, Ibn Monsata, inspired by the greys Thomas Bainbridge painted in the 80s and 90s. I also gathered a bunch of reference photos of this effect so I’d get the intensity and placement right, too. Then secondly, vast expanses of white on the body can end up looking flat and boring so I was curious to see if I could liven it up by using oils with a certain strategy, the same strategy that could potentially mimic that dark skin effect all by itself. 

So what was that strategy? Welp, it was to paint the “wrong” way, from dark to light! See, across media, more or less, we’re typically advised to paint light to dark, of starting with your lightest colors and then getting progressively darker. And this makes absolute sense for certain effects and certain media so it’s not an untrue tenet. For what I wanted to achieve in this particular paintjob though, I thought going at things from the opposite direction would be just the ticket. Why was that? Well, I hoped that applying a dark basecoat and then painting progressive layers of white on top wouldn’t only lend dimensional interest to the expanses of white, but would also recreate that dark skin effect in key areas. Two birds, one stone. Ultimately though, I hoped this approach would lend a more realistic feel to the paintwork overall by mimicking the underlying dark skin grey horses have under their coats. Now I’ve already gone this direction in acrylics with two older VCMs of mine, Rhymnik, a customized PAM I did back in 1989, and Rhynegade, a customized CMOW I created back in 1991. It worked great in acrylics, but I was curious to see if it would work in oils, too. You see, I suspected it would work really well because of oils' luminescence, and end up looking particularly super cool. At least it was in the vision in my head, but we all know about the impossible perfection our visions embody! So Ta’alaq was painted entirely on this curious wing-and-a-prayer idea. Would it all work?! Can I do this? Will this all end in bitter tears? Well, the only way is to futz around and find out, right? You betcha! Make FAFO work for you!

The Start

PRIMER AND BASECOAT

So to start this safari, Ta’alaq was primered in Dupli-color Sandable Primer in White (ideally allowed to dry for at least two weeks to de-gas and truly dry). Then I basecoated him in acrylics with make-up sponges first to create a really good, sturdy layer and then with an airbrush to get an even layer and into areas I couldn’t reach with the sponge (ideally left to dry for up to a month to really evaporate the moisture out). 

Acrylic colors used for the basecoat: Liquitex Soft Body Titanium White and Soft Body Mars Black, mixed into a medium grey.

Note on the Dupli-color Primer: This is a thinner, more transparent type of primer so don't gob it on to make it opaque. It'll do its job with one of two thin layers just fine. Indeedy, it's "tight" and chalky in finish, and provides good adhesion to the surface plus a solid "tooth" for pigment.

FIRST LAYER

This entailed two coats of an alkyd paint so no acrylics would peek through in the dark skin areas. Call me a purist. To create this first layer then I mixed together an alkyd black, an off-white, and a brown to create a neutral medium dark grey. Specifically, the brown was added to counteract the very blue bias of the black so it would better mimic a dark skin tone. Then I painted that on and buffed it smooth, then let the initial layer dry about two days then I added the following layer then let all that dry for about two weeks when the class started. Ready for class! Phew...just in time!

Now I used alkyd paints here rather than true oil paints because I just ran out of time. Ideally, I would’ve used full blown linseed oil-based oil paints, but I simply needed this first layer to be dry very quickly for class. But why was that an issue? Because true oil Titanium White and Ivory Black take for-ev-er to dry, sometimes up to a month, and I just didn’t have that time. In contrast, alkyds use a fast-drying resin rather than an oil as the binder so they dry much faster, in as little as three to four days. And with having to apply two layers for a truly opaque, even finish, I needed that quick-dry feature big time. 

Alkyd colors used for the first coat: Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Ivory Black, Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Mixing White, and Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Burnt Umber.

Six cautions with the alkyds: 1. They have a rather peculiar and strong odor, so if scents bother you, especially chemically-smelling ones, avoid these paints. 2. You have to work fast and in sections when you brush on 'n' buff out. Those who've taken Heather's classes will know what I mean. So with these paints, just do a body section then buff, then the next body section then buff, etc. You have to do it this way cuz this'll all start drying on you pretty quick and you don’t want a weird finish. 3. Wash your brushes immediately. This stuff dries quite fast! Go go go! 4. These paints stain like bananas, so wear studio clothes or a smock or apron when using them. Like the Black took a pure white brush and permanently stained it charcoal! 5. An alkyd paint basically uses an oil-based polyester resin rather than an oil to suspend the pigments whereas oil paints use an actual oil, often linseed oil or sometimes walnut oil, safflower oil, or even poppy seed oil. As such, alkyds dry far faster than oils,  to a hard, durable glossy finish. In terms of use, they were designed for underpainting, but can be used just like oil paints given you work faster. In fact, you can mix them together with oils to speed up oil's drying time. However, only layer alkyds on top of oils when the oils are truly totally dry as the different drying times can lead to cracking over time otherwise. And be careful layering these paints with traditional oils if you're impasto painting as the different drying times can lead to cracking over time. Remember the "fat over lean" rule! But that said, the way we paint our horses is with super thin layers, so I'm not sure if we'd have such a problem. Maybe? No? I don't know as I've not tested it yet. I guess just make sure that your oil layers are completely dry before proceeding with alkyds.

What’s more, I also had some PearlEx MicroPearl and BrambleBerry Super Pearly White Mica I toyed with using in the White but I was concerned it would interfere with the effect I was after. So I toyed with them on a junker first, opting for the PearlEx MicroPearl as I preferred its finer grain. Now I didn’t use a whole lot as this guy is an Arabian and not a Teke, so I dabbed in a medium-ish amount. But, wow, I was happy to discover that there was zero interference and what actually happened was — as promised — a beautiful pearly sheen that mimicked a slicked out coat so nicely. So heck yes I decided to include it in the White! Oh my gosh is Ta’alaq going to be stunning if things pan out as I imagine! I’d just have to remember to put it into every layer so it would all be cohesive.

Oil Paints and How They Dry

Okay, before we actually dig in here, let’s talk about oil paints and how they dry because this sort of stuff is important to know. As we probably already know, oils take longer to dry than other paints like acrylics, watercolor, and gouaches. However, this gives artists a lot more “open” time to manipulate the colors, textures, and whatnot, often resulting in a beautifully blended, smooth surface for the purposes of our particular brand of paintwork.

But what are oil paints? Well, in the most basic sense, oil paints are made of pigments suspended in an oil medium, usually linseed oil. However, walnut oil, safflower oil, and sometimes poppy seed oil are used as well. This oil medium helps to give oil paints their famous luminosity and translucent quality as well as their richness and intensity of color along with their lovely, fatty, buttery texture. Even so, it’s the nature of these oils that contribute to the drying process of the paints. That’s to say, it’s the oil that “dries” in your paintjob, cementing the pigments in a solidified body forever.

So why is “dries” in quotations? Well, technically, oil paints don’t dry, they cure. In this, they cure in a process of oxidative polymerization in which oxygen is absorbed and peroxides are formed, creating a cured polymer body. Said another way, it’s basically the exposure to oxygen that initiates the curing of the oil paint into “drying,” forming a strong, durable layer of pigment. This is in contrast to acrylics and watercolors that dry when the moisture in them evaporates.

Now some will tell you that oil paints never really dry, but they actually do, only it can take a very long time. Like they may be dry to the touch on the surface, but the paint underneath may still be wet and unoxidized. As such, some paintings can take months, even years to fully dry. And oil paint dries in stages ranging from a couple of days to even some years later. Knowing these stages is important in order to make informed decisions about subsequent steps like continuing on (if you restart too soon, you can lift up the previous paint), glazing, creating certain effects (like scratch roaning), and especially when to varnish. These stages are:

• Dry surface: The paintjob feels dry to the touch on the surface while the underlying paint remains wet. This process can take hours or days, usually about 24-48 hours, generally speaking.
• Dry to the touch: The paint can no longer be easily smudged when touched carefully, but the underlying layers are still wet. This stage can take many days to a week.
• Solidified drying: The paint is dry to the touch and also won’t smudge, but some areas may still be soft and damageable. This stage is a good one to apply glazing, but it’s still not ready for varnishing. This stage can last weeks or up to many months.
• Fully dried: When the paint is fully cured and solid so no part of it is soft to be damaged by smudging or squishing. The paintwork can now be varnished safely. This stage will take several months or up to a year, or even more, depending on the thickness of the paint layers.

These dry times can be manipulated, either sped up or slowed down, but only to a point. For the most part, the cure time is the cure time and we just have to work with it. Specifically, the dry time is influenced by these factors:

• Environmental conditions: Obviously, exposing the paint layer to the O2 in the air will initiate the cure. However, the presence of UV light, ambient temperature, humidity, and air circulation can speed up or slow down the dry time. For example, a dry, warm room with good ventilation and exposure to UV light (like sunlight) will facilitate faster drying whereas cool, humid, dark conditions with poor air flow will slow it down, often significantly. Indeed, UV light, or sunlight, can increase dry time as effectively as a siccative (a metallic salt drier), but they shouldn’t be allowed to dry too long in the sunlight as this can actually cause damage to the oil binder. As for too much heat, like a hair dryer, that's ill-advised for drying oils. A hair dryer will evaporate the water vapor necessary for proper oxidation and can even cause your paintwork to crack. The hair dryer can also cause solvents in the paint to evaporate faster which can cause fumes to be released into the air to impact your health. But more times than not, a hair dryer just doesn’t increase the dry time enough to make it worth it. Conversely, cold delays drying, which is why you can store your unused palette in the freezer for later use. High humidity also delays the dry time, however, normal humidity (65% - 75%) affects oxidation favorably because the absorption of water during the process is necessary. Indeed, oils left to dry in too arid conditions may not polymerize properly, losing a significant amount of their oil volume to gaseous vapor during the process which can become a problem with thickly painted layers such as on an impasto painting.
• The thickness of the paint layer: The thickness of the paint film has a direct influence on the speed or slowness of the dry time. In this, the thicker the layer, the longer it’ll take to dry. This is why impasto paintjobs can take years to fully dry. However, we usually paint our sculptures with exceedingly thin layers, just a whisper of paint, which is why they can dry significantly faster and be ready for further steps or varnishing so quickly, relatively speaking.
• The use of driers or which medium used: Drying agents improve the absorption of oxygen by the oil and therefore accelerate the formation of peroxides, i.e. they speed up the polymerization process. (The Old Masters added mineral driers to their varnishes like lead, in the form of lead white pigments, minium or red lead, and lead tin yellow, or manganese in the form of umber, zinc in the form of zinc sulfide, iron in the form if iron sulfide, and calcium in the form of lime.) For instance, Liquin, Galkyd or alkyd mediums such as Walnut/alkyd can be added to speed up the dry time. Adding in some alkyd paints can speed up the dry time as well. Driers that use cobalt, zirconium, and others can also be used, but some can be toxic and can cause cracking or wrinkling so research them first. This website is a terrific resource to start your exploration of driers and this is a great one for exploring mediums.
• Pigments: Different pigments can speed up or slow down the drying time. For instance, some pigments contain minerals that speed up the polymerization process such as the Umbers (which is why they’re so often used in underpainting, particularly Raw Umber, which is often the fastest oil paint to dry), Cobalt Blue, and the Siennas. On the other hand, some pigments slow it down such as reds (especially Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson), yellows (particularly Cadmium Yellow and Naples Yellow), the Blacks (Ivory Black, Lamp Black, and sometimes Mars Black), and notoriously Titanium White. The Hues, cadmiums, and “transparent” colors also take a long time to dry because of their greater percentage of oil binder in them. As for the reason why Titanium White takes so long to dry and why something like Burnt Umber dries so quickly is because the White lacks the chemical properties or minerals (like cobalt or manganese) that act as natural drying accelerators unlike Burnt Umber with its manganese content. What's more Titanium White also contains titanium dioxide, a substance that slows down the oxidation polymerization process of the oil binder. Then the reason why Ivory Black takes so long, too, is because carbon, the primary pigment in Ivory Black, has an antioxidant property that slows down the oxidation process oil paints need to cure. What's more, Ivory Black often contains more oil binder for better flow because the super-fine particle size of the pigment creates a really dense paint film, which also happens to limit oxygen's access and thus slowing down dry time even more.
• Binders: The various oil binders can have different dry times as well. The most common oil used in oil paint is linseed oil, the fastest drying oil binder. However, poppy, walnut, safflower, and stand oil can also be found, each with their own properties. For instance, stand oil can be added to slow the dry time and create a glossier finish with less brushstroke texture. (Safflower oil can often be found in white pigment for a purer, less-yellow white paint.)

Now if you really want to slow down your dry time, you can use certain essential oils because they require oxygen to dry and therefore “steal” it from the oil binder, preventing the oil binder from absorbing it and so slowing its dry time. One such popular essential oil is clove oil. Indeed, putting a cottontail dabbed a touch in clove oil on your palette and sealing it up can nearly stop those oils from drying on your palette. It does this by creating an antioxidant-rich atmosphere on the sealed palette with its eugenol content. However, don’t mix the clove oil into your paints as this will negatively affect their durability when fully dry.

As for a fully dry paintjob that has softened for some reason, which has been observed in paintjobs done with poppy, walnut, or safflower oils, put it in sunlight outside (UV light) and it should harden up again.

Conclusion to Part I

Phew! That was a lot to process. We do need some basic working insight into our chosen medium though if we're going to be successful, especially when it comes to oils. I'd also like to reiterate how the thinness of our layers we paint on our sculptures doesn't present such a crisis when it comes to drying as it would on a normal oil painting and especially on an impasto painting. Truly, that thinness is a real boon and a great technique to get our paintjobs to dry relatively fast. Like on some, I can wait ten to fifteen days and then my paintjob is fully dry and ready for Testors Dullcote and eye glossing! Now note that I didn't mention solvents? I don't use solvents. That is a gift given to me by Heather's method, and I find that it works just fine for our purposes. But if you'd like to use solvents, here's a handy resource here and here and here. For cleaning my brushes, rather than a solvent I use Murphy's Oil Soap as per Heather's suggestion, and it works like a charm! It even smells nice, too!

In Part II then, we'll actually dive into my painting process on Ta'alaq and explore some of the challenges I ran into careening through this dark-to-light approach.

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” 

― Vincent van Gogh

Painting In The Dark: The Right Way To Paint Wrong Part I

Sharpened Savvy: Using Pencils In Paintwork

Introduction

You wanna know what's a nifty thingie for paintwork? Pencils! Yes! You can paint your piece with tremendous depth, precision, ease, and realism with a host of different pencils! Charcoal, conté, color pencils, pastel, oil...there's a plethora of options to explore! Each one has a slightly different effect and feel, so try as many as you can for a passel of effects and to see which you like best. But they're tremendous for dappling, hooves, facial shading, fleabites, speckling, ticking, primitive markings, and coloring the silky striations in manes, tails, and feathers, and a plethora of other touches.

What’s more, they offer a level of control, precision, and detail but paired with a smudge-ability and blur that few other mediums offer. Colorful, pigmented, and versatile, a pencil can be just the ticket for what you need! So let’s explore them further…

Pastel or Chalk pencils

I recommend the General's pastel chalk pencil in white (they come in other colors, too). Ed Gonzales got me onto this years ago and I've found it to be super useful for things like dappling, hooves, highlighting veins and capillaries, hooves, and facial shading. See, it being white makes it not just handy for dapple greys, but for any color if you can tint over it with a glaze. For example, just do your dappling, seal it with Dullcote, then tint over it with a colored glaze a few times to tint those dapples whatever color you want. So much pop! As such, I can use it for bays, chestnuts, palominos, whatever because tinting allows you to use it for solid coats, too. And it, being a sharpen-able pencil, can create all sorts of little details and "spokes" and branches to the dapples for that necessary jigsaw-puzzle-piece look so many types of dapples have like on dapple greys, sooty dapples, seasonal dapples, and some silver dapples (especially clipped ones). To add even more oomph, use a pointed Q-tip to smudge strategic portions to soften and blur portions so it all doesn't look so harsh and "penciled on" then spray with the Dullcote to set it all before proceeding to the next steps.

For feel, they're soft, powdery, and chalky, smudging very easily but depositing a lot of pigment even so. They often do best with a bit of smudging, too, as they'll look a bit too harsh and artificial as-is without some tinkering.

As another option, there’s the pencil option for pastels rather than just the pan or stick versions! Like, there’s the Faber-Castell pastel pencils, too, and they rock!

Conté Pencils

Try conté pencils for, say, the dark networking between dapples or to add that necessary dapple grey grain or to even detail out dapples even more or add speckles as needed. Then like with the General's pencil, you have to seal your conté work with Dullcote before proceeding. But I just love these pencils for dappling, networking, speckling, fleabiting, ticking, facial shadings, hoof work, all sorts of things. So handy!

As for feel, they work much like the General’s pastel chalk pencil, but are “stickier” in their pigment, or in other words, they don’t smudge as easily which is useful for certain effects. Think of them as an in-between a chalk/pastel pencil and a color pencil.

Color Pencils

You can layer color pencils for added coloration, detail, and depth, producing a whole array of possibility with extreme control and precision. Lesli Kathman tipped me off to these puppies years ago, and I’ve loved them ever since! 

You can use Derwents (and try the oil-based ones, too, they're nifty!) and Faber-Castells and Prismacolors. Just keep in mind a couple of things between brands. Prismacolors are more waxy and so tend to produce more vivid color. However, they are much more prone to "bloom," or getting a cloudy cast if applied too heavily. In contrast, the Derwents are less waxy and so are harder and hold their points better, and are less prone to bloom, but they are less intense in color. So experiment between the brands to see which you prefer.

Consider using a burnisher to smooth or blur portions of color pencils (this is too powerful for the charcoal, oil, and pastel pencils). Just be careful not to press too hard or you'll rip up your paintwork. This helps to smooth or "de-grain" and buff strategic portions as you need them.

As for feel, these are stiffer and more precise, and not very smudge-able. They pretty much stay put. One thing though, the different colors of these pencils can react differently to sealers so be sure to test each one first on a junker before applying to your piece. For instance, some of the pale colors can essentially disappear under sealer whereas some colors like the yellows, golds, and ochres become much more vivid and garish, so adjust accordingly.

Tips

Now getting used to these pencils takes a bit of practice and experimentation to develop a feel for them, so practice on a junker first. Also experiment with layering pencils with glazes and paints and airbrushing or drybrushing. Indeed, pencils can be integrated into every aspect of your work and actually look better when you do most of the time. But there are some general tips to keep in mind with pencilwork, such as:

• Keep pencils sharp with a really good sharpener, one that won't break your pencil core either. Or use an X-acto to shave a fine point if need be (be careful!). But you want that fine tip to really get all that detail in there without creating a blobby mess or "chatter." These puppies offer precision and detail, so allow them to do that for you with a sharp tip. 
• You don't have to press hard! Learn that gentle touch or you'll tear up your basecoat.
• Stay in scale. It's very easy for pencilwork to go out-of-scale as regimentation sets in, so be sure to employ plenty of mediating tactics like taking breaks, working upside down, scaling down your references to the size of your piece, inverting the color on reference photos, counting dapples, and such. 
• Consider pencilwork as layers in your overall scheme. In other words, it works really well even when integrated with layers rather than just as stand-alone touches. For instance, I like to layer them with airbrushing, dry-brushing, washes, and even oils. That helps to "set them back" into the paintjob rather than looking penciled-on in an artificial sort of way. Pencilwork can really look "painted on top" if not set back into the paintjob with layering, expert color use, or blending.
• Use Dullcote to seal and provide tooth again before proceeding to the next major step, especially if it involves glazes or paint layers. Charcoal, pastel, and conté pencils will just wash or smudge away without that step, and color pencils often need "re-toothing" for the next layer.
• Strategically smudge and blur pencil work to make it “sit back” into the paintjob more otherwise they can look too harsh as times.
• Be careful of color pencil "bloom" when they just get too waxy and cloud over. Keep your layers thin and Dullcote in-between them to add another layer rather than just trying to slather it all on in one go.
• Pencilwork takes a lot of time so take breaks to avoid regimentation or formula. Take your time.
• Squint your eyes to better judge the "lay of the land" with penciled dappling, and try to imagine it all "seated back" or tinted with the following layers. This is because pencil dappling can look really harsh when you first lay it on, and it's layering and smudging or burnishing that sits it back and makes it more subtle, blended, and nuanced.
• Start your pencilwork early in the process, not as one of the last steps. You want to integrate it into your overall paintwork, and starting early helps you do that best.
• Pencilwork is great for blocking in dappling to make a template. Like you can block it in with the General's white pencil to get it just so because if you don't like a portion, just wash it off with a damp Q-tip and redo that area! Easy peasy! Then Dullcote and then you can use paint or whatnot on top. But this gives you a lot less committed process that's so much more changeable than going in with paint right away.
• Pencils are terrific for fleabiting, speckled, or lacey effects, even ticking. Just keep the pencil sharp. In particular, I find that conté pencils are particularly handy for these effects because they're "stickier" than a pastel pencil but more smudge-able than a color pencil if you want to diffuse them a bit with a pointed Q-tip.
• Not only can you tint all this to colorize it how you want, but you can use different color color pencils to infuse different colors into your paintwork. They come in a huge array of colors so make use of them!
• Store all pencils blunt-side down so the points are pointed upwards. That lets you see the colors immediately and protects the sharp tips.
• Pencils are immensely helpful for hoofwork for all the different effects, so play around with them to see how great they are! In particular, they make "painting in the round" so much easier with all the up and down and sideways striations. But again, they do better when layered with multiple techniques, so experiment to find the process that works best for your methods.
• Pencils are perfect for making the mane, tail, and feathers look striated and wispy. You can get as bold or as subtle as you want, too, and use different colors to shade and highlight as needed.  Then consider layering in airbrushed striations to soften and blend, or oil paint tinting and blending to marry everything together.
• Pencils are nifty for amplifying that inner core of a dapple grey dapple for that diffused effect. You know, how the middle is that intense color which diffuses on the edges? You can achieve that with an airbrush, but you often find yourself fighting it and you have less control. A pencil on the other hand, one that can be smudged or burnished, delivers every time!
• Pencils are great for highlighting veins and capillaries as you can place them easily right on top of the vein, then smudge or burnish them a bit to soften and blend.
• Pencils are handy for shading and highlighting facial details, too, like striations and wrinkling or whisker bumps. They're also useful for coloring the insides of shaved ears, highlighting those ribs inside the ear. Try it!

Conclusion

Pencils are just so super nifty for certain effects in realistic equine paintwork, it’s uncanny! It’s like they were made for some of the things we have to do, I'm surprised more folks don't use them. Like they make hoofwork so much easier! And the striations in manes and tails and feathers? Beautiful and wispy! And a pencil will never spread out like a brush, so your line will always be thin and controllable if you keep them sharp. So give them a try! They can offer just the touch or effect you're looking for with all the control and precision you could want! I recommend getting a white one, a black one, and maybe a couple of browns to play around with first, then as you get a feel for it all, you can expand into more colors. The neat thing is, they're relatively cheaper and last a long long time for our purposes, so consider tinkering with them. They're very accessible and friendly!

So grab your sharpener and make a pointed effort to explore the wonderful world of pencils! They're vibrant, versatile, and so very useful in so many ways! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” 

— Kurt Vonnegut

Sharpened Savvy: Using Pencils In Paintwork