Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Mini Haggis (Part 4)

Reference is of an
extreme bay sabino.


So all the facial and body details have been completed on Mini Haggis and he's only about 50% done. He has a whole portion of painting that still needs to be done on him before he can go back to his owner. This portion is his white markings. He will be an extreme sabino and the amount of bay color I've placed on him is far too much, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any spots so the white markings will mimic the reference as close as possible. It's easier to go over the bay color with white than to add bay to small areas later on.

This reference only shows one side. I will have to turn the image around in my head and apply what is here on the horse. So basically both sides will get the same pattern except I'll vary the sides just slightly. I like to try and follow the reference as closely at possible.

Keep the reference at
hand for the entire session.


Even though there is a lot of white in this reference this pattern will still follow the natural hair pattern on a horse so I'll keep reference of hair patterns near by just to make sure I'm following things are realistically as possible.

To cover the work that has already been done the best paint to use is slightly watered down gesso. Water it down till it doesn't streak when applied to the horse. Too much water will create a very cloudy milky effect which we don't need at this stage. It will take approx 6-7 coats of white gesso to properly cover this horse. Once covered add Titanium white acrylics (at least 2 coats) on top of the gesso. Let everything dry for at least a day.

Water down the gesso
so no streaks show




"Tackle and Tumble III"
Graphite and watercolor on archival bristol.



“Even if you stumble, you’re still moving forward.”

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