Subject: Re: Tips on painting horses From: John Bicknell Here's some tips I got which have helped mine: 1. Most horses have some white color just above their feet, these are called "socks". Nearly all horses have one, two, or three socks. Very few have no or four socks. 2. Many horses have a splash of white, called a "blaze" on their faces and or chests. 3. Tails and manes are often a different color from the rest of the horse...lighter or darker, and usually all one color. 4. The lower portion of the horse is usually darker than the upper part. I now follow the guidelines above, painting the horse in its basic color, then add a darker wash, and paint the mane and tail. I then put an even darker wash on the lower part of the horse. I then take the original color and highlight parts of the horse. Then I take a slightly lighter shade and touch "high points". I then add blazes and socks and touch up the manes and tails. The other advice I can give you is that whenever you happen to be somewhere and see a horse, take a good look at the horse -- even make notes. === From: Steve Miller I'm no professional artist but can paint a "mean" horse and lots of them at one sitting! Here's the plan: 1. Prime your horses with Rustoleum Flat White. It's good stuff and works better than Krylon or K-Mart Blue Light Special! 2. Purchase Windsor and Newton Aklyd Oil Paints. You will need the following paints: Burnt Umber Raw Umber Raw Sienna Payne's Gray Coal Black They are a little different than regular oils (they dry completely!) Apply a coat on your horse figures. Use those sponges you throw away from "blister packs" to rub off the excess. Let them dry overnight. I put them outside...during Texas summers...they dry quickly! The result gives your horse a patina (an artiste term??) that you can't get with Acrylic washing, painting and drybrushing and other frustrating techniques. You might want to pick up a copy of an old book by Imrie/Risley. It's called Painting Model Soldiers. I found mine at a convention. Great source for horse painting. Deals with all the stuff John and everyone on the newsgroup is alluding to...socks, blazes, etc. Paint the horse furniture flat black if they are not "Ancients" horses. Use your imagination for "Ancients"...if anyone bugs you about it...ask them.."were you there?" Paint the horse manes with Ogre Dark Brown or Black. Dry brush the manes with Howard Hues Concrete (if Jeff Howard will ship it to you before the second coming of Christ...just an aside :) . You will have some great looking horses with a three step method. No painting in the folds or lines...it works...I paint 24-48 horses (15mm) in a sitting...paint 24 horses in 25 mm in a sitting. Try it and drop me a line...I think it works and works well for others in our group. === From: dlavicto@chat.carleton.ca (Dave Lavictoire) Armory has a $2.00 pamphlet called 'Guide to Painting Horses.' I have no idea where you can get it, but it's well worth the money. Some tips which haven't been mentioned yet: Try washing some of your horses in purple. I know, it sounds strange, but done right it can really add life to plain-jane brown. I believe this technique is recommended for chestnuts, especially liver chestnut. When you're done the model, highlight the rump and flanks with a clear acrylic or enamel (depending on the paint you're using). Remember, horses are alive, and sweaty! Since most of my paints are military colours, they are flat as death and not really appropriate for horses. Clear highlights bring the horses to life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Chip Russ I would like to add that the hooves beneath the socks are generally a different color, a sort of grey-flesh-fingernail sort of color. And if you want to add some more detail, don't forget the muzzle, eyes and under the hoof. The hair thins around the mouth, nose and eyes, allowing the skin tone to show. In all but the lightest horses, I dry-brush this with a slightly lighter shade of grey. On white and pale horses, I use a pale-greyed pink. These colors also work for the inner pad of the hooves. The eyes themselves can be painted much like those of the human figures, but are much larger, (always?) brown, and show very little white unless you want them to look terrified. A good source book on painting horses, IF you can dig up a copy, is the old Imrie/Risley handbook. My copy is nearing its twentieth birthday, and I don't know who owns I/R these days, but if you can find a copy it has very good suggestions for colors, blazes and dapples. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: salander@cadence.com (Christopher Salander) Some painting guides talk about painting horses, but it's mainly a numbers problem. How do you paint so many quickly and with variety. 1. Horse skin colors 35% dark brown 20% medium brown 20% reddish brown 10% black 10% tan 5% grey This will vary by region and unit type, but when it doubt, I just follow these numbers. Add white horses to taste. 2. Horse "socks" One reference says that most horses have at least one leg with a white or pale "sock" above the hoofs. If you're in a hurry, (especially in 15mm), you can skip these, but again I use numbers: 20% no socks 20% one socks 20% two socks 20% three socks 20% four socks I also try to rotate which legs the markings occur on. I usually use white, off-white, or very pale tan. 3. Manes and tails I give 1/3 to half of the dark brown horses black manes and tails, some of the tan horses pale tan m&t, and some grey horses darker or lighter m&t. 4. Hooves Gray for gray, black, and white horses. Light tan or gray for brown horses. 5. Faces I give approx. half my horses facial marks or white mouths. Note! Most of these comments apply to line cavalry. Guard cavalry units frequently went to the trouble of making all their horses match. Check out Howard Hues' horse colors: Dun, Bay, Roan, Grey, White, Brown, Black, and Chestnut. - Chris Salander -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Buy a book with lots of pictures of horses in it. This will cost maybe $6, and give you lots of ideas. A paper back "spotting" book with lots of breeds from different parts of the world works particularly well. (You know, they're next to the audobon bird watchers' books.) Watching the occasional equestrian show on ESPN can help too. 2) Don't paint all your horses the same way, unless you are painting a Mongol army or some guards units (like Napoleonic Scots Greys) where the horses were hand-picked to be similar. Even then, vary the blaize over the forhead, the way you do stockings, etc. 3) The simple details make a *lot* of difference. Paint some stockings on every horse, but do it irregularly, and choose the feet to leave the "base color" differently on different horses. Paint the blaizes on the foreheads and noses really differently. I find mixing stars, narrow stripes and wide strips looks nice. Some people really get into painting eyes. I don't, but it's an idea. 4) Start out with "solids" - horses that are mostly the same color. No horse is really all the same color - use thinner or washes or two similarly mixed shades to vary the way the color goes down, what ever is easiest for you. This probably depends on the type and brand of paint you prefer. However, multi-color horses are fun, and look really effective on the table - especially if your opponent did all black or all white horses with no details. The roans and dappled greys and piebalds and skewbalds in my Lithuanian contingent always get lots of comments at conventions. If you don't know what those terms mean, see suggestion #1. 5) As you get better, you'll need to find something to do about manes and tails. They need to look looser and have more depth than the basic coat. I've tried washes, dry brushing and multi-color techniques with varying success. Washes seem to work best if the tail is a dark color, dry brushing if it is a light color. I have a friend who finishes manes and tails by dry-brushing them in metallic silver. He claims they are always oily or greasy and the silver gives them the right shine. I'm unconvinced, but his Persians regularly win painting contests, so it's sort of hard to argue... 6) Black and white horses are not only boring, they're uncommon. In most armies they were reserved for officers, messengers and the like. R Mark Chilenskas rmc@wang.com