Introduction
I'm often asked how I do my veining and other little touches like chestnuts, whisker bumps, ergots, bug bites, nail heads and such. Sometimes I sculpt them on with my epoxy clay, but more often I paint them on with a special brush, using a special concoction, in a special way. Now it’s not a perfect system as it can be tedious and take quite a bit of time, but it has worked well for me for years. So let’s do a deep dive into my methodology with this because maybe it could be useful for you, too!
The Special Brush
I’ve yet to find a suitable brush right out of the package so we have to make it. But no worries — it’s easy! Just find a 10/0 round with 1/2” long bristles. It can be natural fibers or artificial bristles, it doesn’t matter. And the long bristles ensure the brush will have a good reservoir to hold the concoction without having to re-dip every two seconds, ruining your clean line. Okay, so now cut away about 60%-70% of the bristles, leaving you with a skinny, long-bristled brush afterward. (It’s not a bad idea to make two or three of these brushes as back-ups, too.)
The Special Concoction
I’ve yet to find a substance that does what it needs to do right out of the bottle, tube, or pot. In other words, we have to make our magic potion ourselves. I call this elixir “messo” because it’s a mixture of 30% Liquitex Gesso and 70% Liquitex Modeling Paste. I mix that together then thin it with water to varying consistencies to apply it with the brush to create the various details.
The Special Way
Each type of detail requires a little bit different consistency in the messo so start with the least watered-down details first and end with the most watered-down details. So let’s tackle each one, one at a time, in descending order of being watered-down…
- Chestnuts: Apply the unthinned messo to dab on a chestnut onto the leg. Let it dry for a little bit then go back in to pock mark it for texture. Now on some show horses, the chestnuts have been peeled off smooth, so keep that in mind so you can pick the narrative that best fits your piece.
- Ergots: Thin the messo to a thick melted ice cream consistency and dab on a little ergot onto the back of the fetlock in its anatomical position. Not too much though as you don't want a cave-in, so it's better to build it up rather than do it all at once.
- Veins: Thin the messo to the consistency of heavy whipping cream, load your brush, and holding it perpendicular to the surface, draw a bead in a long sweeping motion to create the vein. If necessary, add addition branches according to what your references say. Just when you do, be sure to blend the leading tip into the existing one and taper your ending tip into the body so there are no abrupt beginnings or endings.
- Whisker bumps: With that heavy cream consistency and using the ergot method, dab on tiny whisker bumps onto the muzzle and under the eye.
- Bug bites: With the heavy cream consistency, use the whisker bump method to gently dab on small bug bites in random places.
- Hide textures: Then the messo to about the consistency of whole milk, and paint on fusiform shapes and streaks in key areas such as the neck the triceps area. You can blend them into your capillary work as well for a more realistic organic and fleshy effect.
- Capillaries: Thin the messo to 2% milk consistency and use your brush to make a bunch of chicken scratches, squiggles, fusiform bumps, and jagged streaks in strategic areas of the body.
- Bonus Details: You can add debris to the bottom of hooves, scars to the body, warts in the ear, mud on the body, and other such details with this stuff using different consistencies with all of these various methods. You can even texturize bases and make little rocks with the modeling paste or messo.
Bonus application: You can use messo to brush on hair textures onto the body, feathers, or the mane and tail, using a stiff hogshair brush. To do this, thin the messo to melted ice cream consistency and use a worn hogshair brush to brush on a subtle hair texture onto the body. Just be sure to go in the directions of the hair growth patterns for a realistic result. As for the mane, tail, and feathers, brush in the direction of their flow to mimic the billowing hair best, blending well into the previous layer to make a seamless result. In short then, apply short to medium blended strokes rather than long, symmetrical ones to avoid a "record grooves" effect. You want a flowing, more randomized effect rather than symmetrical, regimented grooves.
Basic Veins and Arteries
Arterial and vein structure is complex, so always use good references based on the type or breed of equine you're detailing, the level of their exertion depicted, and even the narrative climate as all these factors affect how much veins “pop” out. But for the most obvious and basic subcutaneous networks, they’re described in the following:
- Facial vein (or submaxillary vein): The “Y” vein that erupts from the front tip of the teardrop bone (facial crest) and branches towards the eye and nostril. It also goes under the jaw, to enter the jugular, and this portion is referred to as the glosso facial vein; it can produce a subtle visible effect in the throatlatch area.
- Internal subcutaneous vein of the forearm: A major vein of the forelimb, it’s a continuation of the internal metacarpal vein. It passes over the anterior top part of the malleolus of the radius and travels to the back of the knee.
- Internal and external saphena vein: A major vein of the hindlimb, it erupts from the groin near the gracilis and sartiorus muscles and then branches. The larger anterior branch crosses over the top of the tibia and follows the groove between the front of the tibia and the tibialis cranialis (deep flexor metatarsi), over the front of the hock, crossing the top of the metarsal and becoming the internal metacarpal vein. The smaller posterior branch goes towards the gastrocnemius muscle.
- Internal metacarpal vein: Major vein of the hindlimb and a continuation of the saphena vein.
- Digital veins of the limbs: Pass along the caudal aspects of the limbs into the foot and with two branches, reaches to the front of the limbs. They’re a visible aspect on the horse.
- Spur vein: A major vein of the torso, it branches into two aspects, an inferior and superior branch. The largest branch lies along the top border of the posterior deep pectoral muscle and goes into the armpit.
- Subcutaneous abdominal vein: Passes along the posterior of the abdomen and into the posterior of the sternum. It’s often quite distinct on a broodmare or nursing mare, sometimes called the "milk vein."
Best Advice
This method takes a boatload of "feel" to perfect this technique, so practice practice practice on a junker first. A lot. Then practice some more. Indeed, you won’t get it how you like it right out of the gate — it takes a lot of practice and patience to perfect. And patience is a biggie since this technique takes a lot of time and has a high level of tedium to it, especially if you’re working on a “thin-skinned” breed.
Above all though, always work from references. You see, things have their organic patterns and tendencies that you need to capture authentically to be anatomically accurate. For example, veins are somewhat bilaterally symmetrical because each side follows a similar blueprint that needs to be conveyed in your vein-work. Chestnuts have a particular placement on both the foreleg and hindleg. Ergots have their anatomical placement, too. Textures and fascia details have their peculiarities. So do a lot of field study and amass lots of references to work from so you ping your effects accurately.
Keep your brush clean! Don’t let it gum up with messo. You should be rinsing and re-loading the brush with each pass so your flow is smooth, precise, clean, and even. Really, if you let your brush gum up, you’re just going to make a big mess and ruin your brush to boot.
You’ll find you get different results with how you swoop your beaded messo. Like long swooping, smooth lines are good for big veins like the spur vein while wiggly, “chattery” lines are good for textures and capillaries. So play around with how you swoop or chatter the bead to explore the possibilities.
Keep scale in mind. For example, the smaller the scale of the sculpture, the less messo detail will apply. Why? Because there’s no brush or needle that can apply an in-scale whisker bump onto a 1:32 scale piece. So as the scale shrinks, mimicking these details becomes more necessary rather than literally applying them as the messo method does. Likewise, as your piece scales up beyond 1:9 scale, messo detailing becomes less applicable, too, and sculpting these details in becomes more effective. This is because messo-detailing can only produce veins of a certain size without failing, and that Goldilock’s Zone is about 1:9 scale.
Trouble-Shooting
If you have cave-ins, your messo is the wrong consistency for what you’re doing. For example, if it’s too thick or you're applying it too thickly in one go, you can get a cave-in. There's a sweet spot for each type of detail you just have to find by feel through practice. But if you do have a cave in — no worries. Just let it dry then go over it again until it's filled up. Just be sure that when you go over it again that you cover the old vein completely so you don't have "growth rings" along the side which betray the technique or fix.
Now as for that sweet spot, your messo has to be thick enough to have some body to it but thin enough to flow the way you need it to, so find that Goldilocks Zone with lots of practice.
If you don't like something you just messo-ed — no problem! Just wipe it off with a damp brush and wipe dry, then start again.
Tips
Vary the protrusion qualities of your veins and capillaries as they don't all have equal emphasis. The variety of “sticky-outiness” is key so it all looks organic and natural.
You can use the veining technique to restore erased eyelids and other such details to customized OFs if they've been destroyed by the cleaning process. You can even add details to HR minis that have been softened in their detail from the glossy glaze like eyelids, nostril rims, teardrop bones, and the like.
The Modeling Paste is fantastic for filling pinholes up to the size of couscous (larger than that and you'll need to use epoxy clay). It's also great for filling shallow scrapes, gouges, and askew mold seams when prepping. Just dab a bit on, getting it into the pin hole best you can, then quickly and gently whisk away with your finger, flush with the surface. Sometimes you have to let it dry and go over it again, sometimes three times, but voilá...boo boo de-boo booed. You can even give it a light sand if needed with 800-1200 grit sandpaper after it's thoroughly dried (recommended sandpaper is Super Assilex in Lemon or Orange).
Caveats
This stuff dries like cement so it’ll ruin any surface you mix it on. So don’t mix it on your nice palette! Instead, use a postcard or yogurt lid — something you can just throw away.
On that note, also use a junker brush to mix it up as doing so just destroys brushes in short order.
This stuff dries pretty quickly, even as a pile on your disposable palette, crusting over quicker than you think. So mix up more than you think you’ll need. Like if I have to do an extensive messo job on a 1:9 scale piece, I’ll mix up about a ping-pong ball size blob on my disposable palette. That way I can punch through the encrusted shell to get to the gooey part inside as I need to.
An extensive messo job on a 1:9 scale piece can take up to four hours, so give yourself plenty of time. See, you can’t really take breaks as this stuff dries so fast, once you start, you’re kinda committed unless you want to mix up a fresh batch again and again (and Modeling Paste is a bit expensive).
Lastly, do all your messo work as your last step before primer because it'll all slough off if you get it wet. Just use a soft blush brush to dust off your piece and blow on it well right before you primer.
Conclusion
It’s said that “the devil is in the details,” and that surely is the case with realistic equine sculpture and paintwork! The little details can make all the difference! Besides, it’s fun to see your piece pop to life with all these little touches, adding such a sense of immediacy and realism no other way can.
But it does take a ton of practice to get it looking good, so don’t get discouraged if you’re struggling with it in the beginnings. Just keep at it, experiment, and develop that necessary “feel” so necessary for this technique to work. So also have a couple of junkers on hand to be your experimental pieces. But once you do master it, it becomes such a handy trick for adding in these fiddly bits with a lot of organic qualities that really heighten the realism if your piece. So just keep going!
Applying messo details can be a bit tedious, sure, but frame it more as a time of meditation. Take your time, be patient, be methodical, refer to your references — a lot — and you totally got this! Sooner than you think, you’ll be wow-ing us with your beautifully detailed sculptures! So get messo-ing around with messo, and blow us away! We can’t wait!
"The details are not the details. They make the design."
— Charles Eames
