Face Off: Painting and Detailing the Equine Face

Introduction

People gravitate towards the face because that’s how we’re naturally wired. With this in mind, it’s important an artist be mindful when painting a sculpture’s face, pay attention to tone, texture, detail, precision, and impression. 

Truly, the face is characterized by lots of details and nuances that are essential for a paint job to mimic. But artwork is as much addition as subtraction, so an artist needs to know what to showcase and what to downplay, and facial shading is a clear illustration where this skill is important. So let’s look at some ways to achieve a life-like impression with some simple approaches.

It should be noted, however, that we won't be discussing the painting of eyes or markings since these warrant their own tutorial. We'll just be focusing on the contours of the equine face and how we can help them "pop" and appear textural, detailed, and fleshy.

Key Features

First, we have to identify those skeletal parts of the face that need highlighting and those that need shading. Such skeletal things include the zygomatic arches, the nasal bone, jaw bars, and the teardrop bone. And remember, subcutaneous bone should appear hard and solid, not fleshy and squishy. A handy way to achieve this is using bold blocks of highlight and shadow. However, be mindful of certain coat characteristics that call of the bony areas, or certain areas of the head, to be darkly shaded. For example, on many greys and sooties, for example, the teardrop bones are dark.

Next, we need to identify those fleshy parts that deserve similar treatment such as, for example, the jowls, the buccinator bellies, the muzzle, the eyelids, eyebrow wrinkles, forehead musculature, and fleshy details and textures. Keep in mind these are gooshy areas and should be given a treatment that instills a fleshy nature into them. A handy way to mimic this is to use a bold shading treatment with embedded subtle tonal differences, with a squiggly, multi-layered treatment to highlighting, texture, and tone. Indeed, squiggles of light color are particularly helpful in the expanse between the eye and nostril.

Third, identify those details that should be specially highlighted such as veins, wrinkles, eyelashes, ear fuzz, ripples, subtle bumps or depressions, or other little touches. Like with fleshy parts, these squooshy details should appear gooshy and soft, not hard and firm. A good way to achieve this is a subtle layering of color and tone to make them sit back in some places and pop out in others. 

Fourth, we need to pay attention to hair growth such as forehead whorls or the flow of composite grain or fleabites. Likewise, hair details should appear fuzzy or silky, and a diffused use of paint with subtle, strategic, striated detail can do much to mimic this effect. For example, drawing in “hairs” with color pencils and then softening them with a burnisher or airbrush to make them “sit back" into the coat. 

Artistic Considerations

Once we have a good handle on the sculpture’s facial features, we can now paint them. The thing to keep in mind is that it’s our job as a painter to showcase those aspects that are terrific and minimize those that are problematic. In short, we should flatter the sculpture in a lifelike manner, and that can be achieved by the following:

• Think of the face being lit from a single light source, somewhere in the front, about five inches from the sculpture’s nasal bone and forehead. This helps to mimic the angle of the sun's light if we were studying a real horse. So where the light hits is where the highlight should be concentrated and where it doesn’t should be where there shade is applied. Therefore the “tops” of things need highlight and the “bottoms” of things need shading. 
• We should paint like we mean it. Be confident and avoid a confusing use of pigment. Keeping our ideas clear and facial features distinct helps to foster the impression of mass and factual anatomy. 
• The face has to make sense visually or it’ll be distracting. Every single detail and portion of the face should be treated with a meticulous hand. Messiness, confusion, or carelessness with our media will ruin the result. Plus, our paintwork should never appear hurried, sloppy, or inconsistent to the underlying sculpture. For instance, eyelid and eyebrow wrinkle highlights should be exactly on the tops of the wrinkles and the shading should be exactly within the folds of the wrinkles. Likewise, vein highlights should be on top of the veins and not slip off onto the facial musculature. An unsteady hand defeats our purpose.

• Detail counts. While some pieces have a simplistic approach to facial shading, they would do better with more thought and detail. Yes, a horse’s face often doesn’t have all of the hyper-detail some sculptures or paintwork has, but we’re dealing with inanimate objects that have to mimic life, and usually a simplistic approach to facial shading fails to mimic this impression. We don't want our piece to look like a painted model, do we? So pay extra attention to details, deliberately accentuating them with pigment thoughtfully and carefully. Look for squiggles, ripples, and tiny striations to accentuate, too, to really "wake up" the face.

• Know which to emphasize and which to give softer treatment. For example, the zygomatic arches and buccinators do well with a bolder treatment whereas the muzzle can often use a subtler touch.
• Be mindful of coat colors and characteristics such as pangare, sooties, greying patterns, or other such coat characteristics because these require different pigments and treatments. As for cremellos and other similar dilutes, we can simply substitute flesh tones for charcoal tones. The same ideas apply.

• If the sculpture’s facial structure is incorrect, it’s best to minimize those areas that are inaccurate and focus on other areas that are correct rather than fight matters and artificially manipulate things with pigment. Perhaps a pattern or marking can help disguise and distract. Nevertheless, while an incorrect sculpture can be elevated by skilled paintwork, the problems will still be visible to a trained eye, so we should just do our best. We should seek to paint the best pieces we can.

• Determine the physical exertion, grooming, or environment the sculpture represents before shading the face. For instance, a thin-skinned Arabian on a hot day will have markings that are slightly pinked, especially if the animal is show groomed. Likewise, a piece depicting an animal in a gallop or hard exercise, pinked markings can help the impression of physical exertion and pumping blood. On the other hand, a horse on a cold day or with a winter coat won’t have much pinking in his facial markings other than the extreme areas of his muzzle. Similarly, a horse with a tightly clipped face, such as a show Arabian, will have more dark skin showing and influencing the body color, so pay attention to where and how it manifests.

• It's often fun to create a soft, "pasture-like" effect of muzzle shading by adding tans and greens to the boxy upper lip and lower lip rims. At times, it can also be a good idea to tint greys away from stark black and white mixtures to instead infuse some tans and browns to "warm up" the mixture.
• Don't always think in terms of body color and and black for skin aspects. In reference photos, look for greys, tans, greens (grass staining) and other colors that can add realism and dimension to our blacked areas. Also look for highlighted areas such as the nostril rims, muzzle wrinkling, and fleshy bits that do well with a bit of accentuation with soft, lighter color.

• Make sure the intensity of the facial shading is consistent to the intensity of the body shading since both need to harmonize. A body given cursory treatment looks odd with a face that’s been super detailed or visa versa. Keep the big picture in mind.
• Ears shouldn’t be ignored, but given the same special treatment as the rest of the face. This means that their insides should be shaded to highlight their gentle ridges if clipped or have their hair shaded and highlighted if fuzzy. The ear rims should also be neatly done as well as the “V” where the ear folds join the head. 

How to Shade Faces

Note: Apply the correct skin tone to the color as we have to consider not just dark skin, but pink, brown, and "lavender" skin.

• Basecoat the entire head the same color as the body.
• Block in any tonal differences indicative of a pattern such as pangare or grey.
• Block in the charcoal shadings of the eye, nostril, and ear. 
• Line the top ridges of the eyelids and brow wrinkles in a light grey or light version of the body color, and the crevices of the wrinkles in dark charcoal or a dark version of the body color. Also use the charcoal color to add that "eyeliner" around the eye and to define the front corner of the eye. Go back and fix any oopsies with the appropriate color.
• Use black or dark charcoal to color in the nostril (inside the "V" where the two rims meet, too) and line of the mouth. Then line the rims of the nostrils and muzzle wrinkles in a light grey or light body color, whichever works best for the situation.
• Paint the inside of the ear with black or charcoal, then use light grey to paint in the gentle ridges inside the ear and subtle highlights. The closer these ridges are to the ear rim, the more we can incorporate the basecoat color or an ear liner color into this mixture so it blends nicely with the ear rim. For hairy ears, paint the whole fuzzy inner ear a dark shade of the basecoat and let dry. Then lightly dry brush on a highlight color, with the brightest tones on the very tips. Then use a liner brush or color pencils to define strategic little hairs. Also be mindful of the tonal differences and color characteristics of ear hair since they vary with each individual and color. Then we can add detail with a color pencil or a liner brush to paint in the ear rims in the appropriate colors.

• Lay in the facial shadings, underneath the skeletal and fleshy structures, plus the “salt cellar," or the hollow within the zygomatic arches as well. The shade color should be most intense in the remotest areas, but diffuse into the basecoat. Examples of what to potentially shade: underneath the zygomatic arches, the lower area of the jowls, on top and underneath the teardrop bone, the buccinator bellies, down the middle of the nasal bone and some of the soft fleshy details from eye to muzzle. We should also shade the space between the jaw bars. Regardless, choose to shade where it's strategic for the sculpture, flattering it best and being most accurate to its facial structure.
• Lay in the highlights. Think of concentrated streaks of highlight placed in very specific places and forms. Keep the pigment bright and clean. Examples of what to highlight: each ridge of the nasal bone, the tops of the zygomatic arches, the ridge of the teardrop bone, the tops of the buccinator bellies, the jaw bars, and the jowl underneath the eye and diffusing towards the bottom into the shaded part. Again, keep the sculpting of the sculpture in mind when choosing highlighted areas.
• Squiggle in brighter, tighter, and more concentrated highlight in strategic areas of the fleshy areas to make them appear gooshy such as around the muzzle, under the eye, the expanse between the eye and the muzzle, on the buccinator bellies, and on the jowl. Squiggles help to make these areas appear fleshy with their complex web of underlying muscles and fascia.
• Use the basecoat color to blend everything, then go back and deepen shading or brighten highlight as needed. Add extra tones and tints as needed, and continue to fudge and detail and then…
• After we’re satisfied, highlight veins, nerves, tiny fleshy details, and wrinkles. 
• Lay in markings and do the eyes. Then finish with putting a dab of dark flesh color deep inside the nostrils. Be sure to shade the markings and eyes as well, avoiding a flat paintjob with these features.

Tips 

• Something to consider is that not all things in nature translate well into sculpture. For instance, a coat color may come right up to the eyes, muzzle, and inside clipped ears of a real horse, but this effect isn’t so flattering on a painted sculpture because it looks unfinished. Champagnes can be particularly challenging for this reason. 
• Some paintjobs fail to shade and highlight the face adequately, resulting in a flat, artificial look. The sculpture ends up looking like a painted model rather than a living animal. Things are too static. We need to capture that look of organic flesh and we do that with a strategic placement of color and technique. Use shade, highlight, mid-tones, light and dark squiggles, ridges of color and softly highlighted details to bring out its fleshy life.
• Another stumble is when the artist simply paints the ears, eyes and muzzle a flat grey with little shading or detailing, again creating a flat, unconvincing appearance. The same also applies to "blacking" the face, applying flat, stark black rather than soft shadings and highlights to accentuate the look of fleshiness and boney aspects. Attention to nuance and detail makes all the difference!
• Pay attention to tonal differences characteristic of a coat pattern or characteristic for an authentic result. 
• It's a common mistake to paint the head "warm" colors but use "cold" colors to paint the charcoaled areas. This creates an unrealistic and distracting look. Harmonize them. "Cold" body colors should have "colder" charcoal shadings and "warmer" body colors do best with "warmer" charcoal shadings.
• Use shade as an “outliner” and highlight as a means to attract the eye to specific areas. In this manner, we can manipulate the eye to travel around the face.
• We can use fine liner brushes, pencil pastels, or color pencil to further detail markings, eyes, or other facial features. Keep it subtle though because stark pencil work can be distracting when set against more blended, subtle media. Always harmonize the media.
• Don’t be too timid with shade and highlight. We have to recreate the look of mass and anatomy, remember. And in the sea of sculptures with flat facial shading, anything with pizzazz will get the attention.
• We should keep our pigments clean by not muddying them with too much inter-mixing and over-working.
• An accurately sculpted head does well with a "tighter" treatment of pigment whereas a problematic head does better with a "looser," or more generalized treatment. With a problematic head, it's also a good idea to draw more attention drawn to the eyes, markings, and expression. Remember, we want to emphasize the great parts and minimize the questionable parts.
• If we’re airbrushing, we can do some nice blocking-in by spraying on the highlight color from a very oblique angle from the front of the face, then spraying on shade color from a very oblique angle from under the face, allowing the sculpture to “catch” the pigment. This technique works very well with glazing ceramics, too.
• Dark parts look smaller than light parts, so if a facial aspect (such as a nostril) is awkwardly large, simply keep it darker toned. Or, on the other hand, if an area is too small, use white markings or starker highlight to make them appear larger.
• The forehead has a lot of detail, so don’t simply paint it a flat color. Look for soft ripples, squiggles, and bulges of musculature. Also look for how expression influences how to shade and highlight.
• The horse’s head is mostly subcutaneous bone so we should understand cranial anatomy to know how to treat certain areas with paint and technique.
• Don’t ignore the ears! Look for wrinkles, veining, hair growth patterns, and other details we can recreate. It doesn't necessarily have to be on the sculpture itself for us to duplicate it in pigment.
• A face looks best if the ears, eyes, and nostrils have the same level of interest value, the same degree of treatment, so be sure to harmonize all three.
• All details don’t need the same intensity of pigment. Indeed, a life-like quality can be best served with differing intensities in strategic locations. For example, perhaps the “Y” vein on the face looks best with a brighter highlight while any veining on the jowl or ears will do better with subtler highlighting. Even more, perhaps that "Y" vein should have highlight of varying intensities on it! Similarly, maybe the eyebrow wrinkles look good with a bolder treatment of highlight and shade whereas the muzzle wrinkles are more convincing with a softer, fleshier touch.
• Study the work of other artists to discover how they tackled certain aspects. In doing so, we can learn how to best use our media to its fullest advantage. With practice and observation, too, we can learn to shade faces with great results. 
• We should gather lots of good reference photos and concentrate on how we would paint them on a static sculpture. Ponder where highlight and shade occur plus the occurrence and look of details, squiggles, ridges, ripples, striations, and other little features. Compare and contrast, and pay attention to breed and individual variations. This helps us to develop a crucial mental library and the freedom to express the face with broader ideas than what's expected.
• Because each face is individualistic, so should our facial paint job. So approach each painted face with a new, fresh idea. Avoid habit, formula, and try to ignore what's expected by convention. We should study to find what lies beyond the box and seek to infuse it into our painted faces.

Conclusion

Shading faces is a complicated proposition that shouldn't be treated haphazardly or carelessly. It's not an afterthought. Indeed, skillful coloration of the face can make or break a sculpture all by itself. Taking time to go the extra mile can make all the difference!

The horse's face is full of beautiful details and tonal changes and it's fun to capture as much as we can in a paint job. It really helps to bring the sculpture alive and to add expression and texture to an otherwise static statue. We also add variety and depth to our body of work plus we learn more about facial structure and nuance to boot. We should take our time and observe, observe, observe then refine our methods and approaches to not only capture reality, but to accentuate it to really breathe life into our sculpture. It's fun, it's challenging, it's rewarding, and it's inspiring. And it helps us to really look at a horse's face with a more observant Eye and that informs our future work. Enjoy!

(Oh! By the way, there's a really good tutorial on painting eyes here!)

"Seeing artistically does not happen automatically. We must constantly develop our powers of observation."

~ Eugene Delacroix

Face Off: Painting and Detailing the Equine Face

Sculpting the Equine Eye

Introduction

The horse’s eye is a complex organ designed by nature in a specific way. This design is necessary for the animal’s survival and, therefore, should be duplicated as closely as possible in sculpture. People also naturally focus on eyes, making correctly sculpted eyes important for believability.

However, the eye can stump sculptors because of its intricacies and peculiar angulations. Even if one of these characteristics is askew, the result is often an unconvincing face. Therefore, this article intends to provide some insights for successful results.

Note: For the purposes of this tutorial, the term “eye” refers to all the features of the eye (the eyelids, eyebrow wrinkles, cranial structure and fleshy configurations) where as the term “orb” refers only to the eyeball itself.

Things To Think About

The horse has the largest orbs of any land mammal. They're set onto the sides of his head, as appropriate for a prey species. Indeed, vision is paramountly important to the horse and, therefore, should be equally important to the artist.

The equine orb isn’t a perfect ball, but an elongated, egg-shaped organ. The equine skull lacks a boney shield between the orb and the brain, and only a fatty pad separates the two. For this reason, senior horses can appear to have a sunken eye as their body fat may be compromised by bad teeth. The orb should also protrude just a bit, but neither too much nor too little; it definitely shouldn't be flat. It’s a delicate balance that an artist should be attentive to reproducing accurately. 

The orbs are basically the same general size on all horses, despite breed. It’s the structure of the cranial areas and fleshy parts that make an eye look “larger” or “smaller” on different individuals or breeds. In other words, the orbs are of similar size on an Arabian, Quarter horse, Akhal-Teke, Shire, Warmblood, Shetland, and Lusitano, etc.

The canthi are angled onto the cranium in a consistently basic way. Generally speaking, most horses have their canthi angled about 40˚ - 42˚ to the ear-eye-nostril alignment. Some breeds, such as drafters, may have slightly bigger angles, at 43˚ - 45˚. Life study and photographs can provide a good mental library. It's important to pay attention to these angles because if the canthi are angled improperly, the eye won’t look right. However, don’t assume the eye is shaped the same on all breeds. Indeed, Arabians tend to have a rounder eye and Iberians and Drafters usually have a more almond-shaped eye, for example. So we should pay attention to breed differences when sculpting the eyes.

The horse is remarkably expressive with his eyes and many tiny muscles govern its motion. For example, a frightened horse can draw in his orb just a bit, creating a more sunken eyeball. We should also be mindful of his eyelids and eyebrow wrinkles, which reveal a great deal about his mood and focus. Horses truly have "eyebrows," like dogs.

The equine eye is set high and far up, towards the crown, on the skull. This is because as evolution developed the huge battery of long crowned teeth, the head stretched forward away from the eye socket, orienting it further back and upward to make room for the tooth roots. So we should be careful that our eyes aren’t placed too far down on the head as to interfere with the tooth roots; otherwise we’ve created a sculpture that would pop its own orbs internally with the tooth roots. So generally speaking, the horse’s eyes are set on the upper third of the head. We should also be careful not to set the eyes too close to the jaw; otherwise we've also created an orb that would pop from the tooth roots.

The zygomatic arches are also important to accurately recreate since they’re such obvious landmarks. The clearly visible “U” is formed by the zygomatic arch (Arcus zycomaticus), the orbital arch and the external frontal crest (Os frontale) and is oriented towards the crown, through which the coronoid process of the mandible pokes in-and-out while chewing (we can observe this on the living animal). The bulb, below the zygomatic arch is the condyle process of the mandible, which articulates at the joint of the jaw, behind the eye. In other words, the zygomatic arches and the mandible must be aligned correctly, otherwise the artist has created a cranial structure inaccurate for an equine. In other words, that little "button" created by the zygomatic should sit aligned to the back of the jaw.

The teardrop bone (or facial crest) runs down from the zygomatic arches from behind the eye to about midway down the head and more or less follows the ear-eye-nostril alignment. Also observe that the area below the lower rim of the eye isn’t always flat, but can have a nice bulge of flesh too, often with soft wrinkles.

We should also note the eyelashes and decide if they would be a nice touch to our sculpture. Remember, eyelashes are only missing if they’ve been shaved off. And note any whisker bumps around the eye since they’re often a nice detail to add.

Sculpting Sequence

Note: The process described below refers to a “traditional” size sculpture. Adjustments in amounts should be made for larger or smaller size sculptures.

• Have a clean slate. This means that if we’re customizing, remove the entire eye and zygomatic arches. If we’re sculpting from scratch, have this area clear and flat. 

• Look at the piece and decide where to put the eye. We should take measurements if we have too and mark in any reference points with a pencil or divots.
• Take a blob of sculpting material about the size of a pea and smoosh it on where the actual eye is supposed to be. 
• For the zygomatic arches, make two short snakes, slightly bigger than the thickness of a pipe-cleaner, and place them above the eye blob, arched upwards and towards the crown, leaving a middle hollow which creates the “salt cellar." Then add a smaller snake right on top of the eye blob to accentuate the brow. 

• Then make a small ball of sculpting material, about the size of a BB, and smoosh it under the lateral zygomatic arch and in alignment to the jaw to create the "button" that lies below the arches. 
• Plane and blend the material into the surface, removing or adding material as needed to create a proportioned, well-placed, and correctly planed, blocked-in idea of the eye. (Another method is to make a ball for the orb, of appropriate size, and lay in the upper brow and the lower rim independently. We need to find the method that works for us.) 
• Find and mark the canthi, making sure their angulation is correct to the ear-eye-nostril alignment. These will be the front and back corners of the eye, so be sure they’re consistent to a proper eye size and placement. Then with a sculpting tool, gently draw in and outline the orb. It's recommended to tap in the material to demark it, rather than making a drawing motion which can tear or pull the material and create distortions. Be sure to check it again to confirm it’s correctly placed and sized. To make adjustments, blend away an offending part of the outline and modify.

• When we’re satisfied with this step, use sculpting tools (refer to the recommended tools at the end of this article) to block in the features, adding dimension and form. Round out the orb and refine. At this point, refrain from sculpting in delicate details and concentrate on the “big ideas." Then smooth with rubbing alcohol (or Goo Gone for clay) and brushes then allow the epoxy to rest until it becomes only slightly stiffer than “fresh." 
• Now we can begin to focus on the details such as eyebrows, wrinkles, the lower rim, etc. Tip: Dip the sculpting tools in a solvent such as rubbing alcohol for Gapoxio or Apoxie, or Goo Gone for clay, to add lubrication which helps to avoid tearing or distorting the sculpting material while working. But don’t soak. Just coat the tool.
• Avoid using tools for an area that create too broad a "trench." The rims of the eyes should hug the orb closely, right up against it, lacking a "trench" between the orb and the rim. Also remember that wrinkles, such as for the brow, shouldn't have broad "trenches" either, but have discreet creases. However, the main brow can have a broader "trench" at times, so use reference photos.
• Avoid creating brows that are too pointy in 3/4 view. It should be a gentle bump, often with a flattish top.
• Be sure to check the alignments and structure of the eye area continually to stay on track, and continue to add and clean up detail. We can even detail in the third eyelid and the teardrop bud (lacrimal caruncle) in the front canthi if we wish, or we can save that for pigment later. It's up to choice. On certain artworks we can even sculpt in the pupil and rim of the eyewhite for bronze or stone work if desired.

• When done, allow the material to rest even more to stiffen a little more then we can add eyelashes if we wish. To do this, roll out a tiny snake of sculpting material and pop it lengthwise along the top eyelid. Then gently blend this into the eyelid, making sure its shape and qualities relay the idea of delicate eyelashes. They are often longest in the middle and shorter at the canthi. When blocked in, allow the epoxy to rest until the material is slightly stiffer, then delicately sculpt in the hairs, sculpting from the ends of the eyelashes to the eyelid and visa versa. Smooth with rubbing alcohol and brush, do further refinements and re-smooth.
• When even stiffer we can refine and define, then smooth with solvent and brushes. Then finito! At least for one eye.
• When we sculpt the other eye, it's critical that it be symmetrical and symmetrically placed to the first one. Actually sculpting this second eye is the trickier task for this reason, but keep at it. And practice makes perfect!

Things To Keep in Mind

• Avoid creating orbs that are too protruding or bulbous since this can indicate hypothyroidism or ASD (Anterior Segment Dysgenesis), both rather serious pathologies.
• Avoid creating orbs that are too flat or deflated since this is unrealistic as well as unnatural, possibly indicate a puncture injury.
• Avoid creating eyes oriented to forwards on their axis, like a person or dog. The equine eye must sit on the side of the head with the orbs oriented more on their sides, as nature intended, because the horse is a prey animal who needs to see behind him. However, avoid sculpting the eyes flat on the sides of the head as this is equally unrealistic; it's a delicate balance.
• Be sure the eyes are correctly placed on the head and not down so far as to interfere with the roots of the teeth. Constantly check them against the basic guide of the ear-eye-nostril alignment.
• Avoid creating eyes that sit too far out on the cranium like frog’s eyes. This can create an unrealistic ghoulish appearance. So be mindful of the cranial structure supporting and protecting the orbs.
• Make sure the canthi are oriented correctly and consistent with both eyes. 
• Be sure the eyes are sized correctly, being neither too big nor too small and that both eyes are of equal dimensions and angles.
• Make sure both eyes protrude from the skull accurately and equally. 
• While breed differences exist in orbital structure such as among Exmoors, Drafts, mules, etc., they’re relatively subtle in comparison to some of the artistic distortions seen in sculpture. So avoid creating brow ridges that are too extreme or extended beyond realistic parameters, becoming too heavy or overly protruding.
• Make sure the zygomatic arches are aligned properly to the mandible and to the ears and forehead. Also make sure they're oriented correctly, not tipped down towards the jaw or tipped up too far upwards towards the forehead. 

• The planes of the eye are crucially important, so be careful to get them correct in the formative stages.
• Avoid a caricatured structure of the eye. While the eyes of horses in many old paintings are dramatic, their stylized treatment doesn’t look authentic on a realistic sculpture. Yet pay attention to expression. The brows can be either subtle or pronounced is expression so use clear reference photos.

• Keep the eyelids looking fleshy, flexible and soft, and avoid a harsh treatment with their sculpting. They should have rounded edges and appear as soft wrinkles, not slash marks.
• Don’t forget to sculpt in the lower rim of the eye; it adds definition and interest. We may wish to sculpt in the lower bulge too, though it’s not present on all horses.
• Be mindful of detail from delicate wrinkles, whisker bumps to the subtle, nuanced play of eyelids with expression.

Sculpting Tips

• If using epoxy, soft artificial brushes dipped in rubbing alcohol can be used to smooth sculpted details. If using most clays, Goo Gone works much the same way.
• Eyes are easiest to sculpt if we have tools to fit the shapes needed. A pointed spoon-like end is recommended plus a pointed end, a ball end, and a rounded curve end. Tools can be specially designed sculpting tools, sharpened pencils, dental tools, or burnishing tools in spoon-shapes or ball-tips.
• Use a pair of calipers to make sure things are proportionally correct and symmetrically oriented. And calipers are of particular usefulness with sculpting the other eye.
• A handy trick is to draw a straight line down the front of the face with a pencil; it should run perfectly down the nasal bone and bisect the entire head into equal halves. Then use a T-square to draw a 90˚ line to demark the top of the eye, the front canthi and each "button" beneath the zygomatic arches. This gives us reference points for sculpting the other eye. This bisecting line is also useful to make sure our brows are of equal placement and dimensions, too, keeping in mind the movement of each eyebrow should be considered in relation to the other.

Conclusion

With practice and study, sculpting eyes becomes easier with each sculpture. And really, the only tricky part is creating a second eye to match the first! If we keep working at it, it'll get easier as we get the hang of sculpting eyes. As such, our sculpting becomes more accurate and fast, and we learn the subtleties of expression and placement better, too.

"It's through my artist's eyes that I see wonderful things in nature that I never saw before."

~Kathy Connelly

Sculpting the Equine Eye

Equine Anatomy and Biomechanics: A Primer of Equine Engineering for Advanced Students Part XVII - Wrap Up

Introduction

Phew! We've reached the end of this series! Finally! We sure learned a lot, haven't we? It's been a long, wild ride, but hopefully well worth the effort. Thank you for sticking around! If you'd like to restart the series as a refresher, return to Part I. A blog series on this subject for the advanced student won't be posted however, leaving it for book form. There's just too much for the blog format to be effective. Everything has its limits. Anyway, if you'd like to return to the beginner series, Anatomy 101, you can return to it here. Between these two series, we're set up pretty well for further advanced pro-active study. 

But that's the point: all this requires study. We have to apply ourselves to gain the necessary insights we need to advance our skills. These things don't come by osmosis or prolonged exposure: it takes work. So simply being around horses isn't enough. We can be exposed to them our entire lives and still be blind to the components and details, or ineffective when infusing them into our clay. We need keen observational skills paired with a solid understanding of structure and function, and that means learning about such things isn't a passive undertaking. It calls for action. And in this spirit, hopefully this series pointed us in the right direction. 

The Big Picture
Overall, we can say we've gained a better perspective on the "biologic" behind equine structure. What we know and what we don't know are invariably infused into our work, and that reveals our base of knowledge with every tool stroke. But even more, what we don't know has more power to influence our sculptures than what we do know. Knowledge gaps manifest as blindspots, and we all know how influential a blindspot can be! So we need to attend to our knowledge gaps with great attentiveness, but how can we when, by definition, they exist under our radar? For further discussion on this phenomenon, please check out my blog series "What's Reality Between A Couple Of Friends...And A Bunny."

But ultimately it all comes to this: our gumption. It's our grit to learn more and, more still, to learn how to effectively apply that knowledge to clay that will determine how we improve our work. And that's important since as we can see from this series, knowing and doing are two entirely different things when it comes to our perceptive abilities. There's a chasm between knowing and doing that needs to be bridged by study, experience, practice, careful observation, our techniques, and artistic exercises. In essence, the bridge is our perception, our ability to discern the necessary information from life to authentically infuse into our clay. These two pathways with the perception bridge between them can be thought of as a creative dog bone when it comes to equine realism. It's our reward for a job well done.

But that's the crux: both need equal attention if we hope to take our work to the next level. Yet there's good news to this: there are so many intriguing things to learn about this animal! Our own discoveries and what new science is revealing promise to keep us on that learning curve for years to come, and that keeps our work evolving and our experience interesting.

Through these pathways, we also gain a better perspective of our intentions. Because perspective is important. It gives us a bigger view of this animal we so love, beyond our own limited ideas and life experience, and into deeper territory. Indeed, the horse is far more complicated than he appears to be, and there's far more to this animal than what many know. The horse is probably the most taken for granted animal on the planet. But this is how being a dedicated equine artist helps to deepen our knowledge perhaps more so than just about any other equine discipline. Not only do we simply have to know more and have a far more interdisciplinary knowledge base than many other equine professionals, but we have to engage this animal on more emotional and philosophical terms in order to capture his soul in clay. We have to be a jack of all trades...and be good at each one.

But even more, we have to know how to translate this perspective into clay in order to produce not only an accurate equine sculpture, but a responsible one. It's not enough to simply parrot what we see...we have to know how to duplicate this animal with accountably. We do this through proactive education to generate an independent knowledge base that frees us from conventional thinking and worn out beliefs. We also have to stay on top of new scientific findings so we can integrate new data into our work.

The equine has flummoxed countless artists. Even Degas never thought he got the animal quite right. Da Vinci, Stubbs, Gericault, and Delacroix, and Michelango certainly created beautiful images of horses, but they weren't very realistic, were they? Modern realism is quite different from the art of the past. We demand more technical accuracy, perhaps largely in part to the influence of photography. And it's a challenge, to be sure. Being able to technically reproduce such a complex animal isn't for the faint of heart, but for the dedicated and diligent...and the bit mad, too.

In this spirit, this series was written to help artists understand the biological underpinnings of this necessary technical accuracy while also tapping into other ideas that open new doors. The truth is we need to know his biology in order to reproduce him authentically and honesty. We need to know how the animal is built and why so that we may better form our clay and make our creative decisions with authority. But it's also true that we need to constantly reevaluate our perception of him, both factually and philosophically. If our view of him remains static, so does our work. We'll never start to peel back the layers into the deeper meanings and implications of this splendid beast. So hopefully this series inspired some thoughtful introspection.

This series was also written to highlight just how much we take for granted about this animal, in particular, his graciousness and generosity. From his point of view, we thrust all manner of strangeness onto him such as going around in so many circles or affixing ribbons to his bridle or buzzing his coat with clippers. This creature does a lot of "filling in" for us because we too often "speak" incompletely or not clearly enough (if at all), and he's left having to figure out what we want, and in a language unfamiliar to him. Too many people think this animal to be dim-witted and stupid when in actually he's quite clever, resourceful, and intelligent! We should always be grateful to and respectful of this creature, and that sentiment should show in our chosen visuals.

The Implications

For these reasons, each piece is an opportunity to not only be creative, but to speak for this animal. We are the interface, of sorts, the translator that helps people come to appreciate this beast beyond perhaps what they're accustomed to thinking and feeling. We can capture the essence of this animal and convey him not just on a literal sense, but in an emotional sense, too. We can advocate for him through our art. Indeed, when we marry technical accuracy with emotional content, with a bit of narrative thrown in for good measure, we create a visual that asks people to regard this animal with new eyes and new hearts. And that's a welcome ingredient in the vast mix of equine experience.

The point is this: it's a curious thing to ponder taking our work beyond simple representation, like a technical illustration, or 3D anatomy chart. When we infuse life, meaning, and soul, we're taking our work beyond these simple terms and asking the viewer to engage in our work more deeply. In this way, we can present this animal in a new light, one that provokes a connection beyond simply "wow, that's realistic!" or "wow, that's beautiful!" Let's try to take it further.

Above all, don't be daunted. We shouldn't let the first intimidating impression of equine anatomy scare us off. It's learnable, absorbable, and applicable if we just have the gumption. Anyone can grasp it given they have solid guidance. For this reason, it's a great idea to look into equine anatomy workshops to get a hands-on approach to the topic. There are a few out there, and some are provided in the Resources (below). Being able to learn anatomy "through the hands" really helps to program it into our brains much better and faster. It becomes real, not some abstraction in a book.

It's also a fascinating topic. Learning about the horse beyond our casual understanding is exciting and curious. We also begin to perceive the world from his point of view and from his evolutionary perspective, and that comes around to inform our work in really interesting ways. Quite literally, learning about equine anatomy is to learn his story, what the world is like from his perspective as opposed to ours. Having this new view adds dimension to our work, an understanding of the animal from the inside out in the full breadth of what that means, from personality to psychology to physiology. As such, we can't help but evolve ourselves and our work beyond practical improvement since it takes us down new roads of discovery and creativity. What a great way to pay homage to our beloved subject!

Final Thoughts

Thank you for sticking through this series. It was a delight to write, to share this knowledge with those who had the moxy to gut it out. That's the first step on a new path, one that will take us on a grand adventure which will deepen our appreciation of this magnificent beast in ways we may not expect. He's a unique marvel of biological engineering and psychological sophistication, and to be able to perceive that in each animal and each piece of art is a true gift. No other animal is built like the equine. No other animal moves on one hoof or has the specific anatomy to serve his singular biological needs. He's is positively unique in all evolution. And there will never be another like him. He is among the last of his kind. To see this totality adds a new dimension to our work and our sense of meaning when mushing around our clay. He is his distinct lifestyle, purely expressed in his physique and character, and let that breath fresh air into our studio experience. He is so much more than what we think he is.

So take the second step! Take up the proactive rein and continue the journey of advanced education! It's a worthwhile road to walk, and a necessary one if we wish to improve our work and enhance our understanding. You're invited to take the next step...so...1...2...3...!

Until next time then...keep steppin' along with confidence!

"It is better to have knowledge, even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction, than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder."

~ Isaac Asimov

Resources

2016 Reference Listing

Equine Studies Institute (and look for her dissection courses)

Equine Tapestry

Workshops with Lynn A. Fraley

Equinology and EquikenTM

Sustainable Dressage

Dr. Hilary Clayton and Equinology

Horses Inside Out

AAEA Workshops

Hoof Rehab with Pete Ramey
Anatomy Eccentricities Relevant to Realistic Equine Sculpture
Foundations of Soundness
Rooney's Guide To The Dissection Of The Horse (WARNING: DISSECTION PHOTOS)
Virtual Equine Anatomy (WARNING: DISSECTION PHOTOS)
Anatomy Eccentricities Relevant to Realistic Equine Sculpture Facebook group
The studies of Dr. Robert Bowker
The studies of Sharon May-Davis 

Equine Anatomy and Biomechanics: A Primer of Equine Engineering for Advanced Students Part XVII - Wrap Up