All images contained in this website are copyrighted property of Carolyn Smith
I am painting a Mink Medallion to a perlino. Every horse I paint a little differently, so this is not necessarily methodical. I experiment and change my mind as I go along. This is just what steps I happen to take for this particular horse.
So here we go...
PREPPING:
Not much prepping involved. Just had to fill a few airbubbles in the back with Apoxie Sculpt, then prime. My initial layer of primer was Rustoleum Painter's Touch (white). My final coat of primer was Krylon Spray Gesso. I use this because it is non-yellowing, which gives me some peace of mind when painting a light colored horse.
FIRST LAYER:
Dust entire medallion with very light grey. Shade the pink muzzle and eyes (and ears a little bit) with burnt sienna (a rusty brown).
Lightly shade the muscular darker areas with yellow and burnt sienna, as well as the mane.
Dust over the body again with light grey (but not the mane).
Use kneaded eraser to "erase" highlights in the mane.
Shade background and flowers with blue, and the leaves with blue and yellow since I don't have any green.
Spray with Krylon matte.
SECOND LAYER:
Lightly dust muscular/dark areas with burnt umber (earthy brown color).
Shade grooves, wrinkles, and crevices in mane with burnt umber.
Shade background blue with black to make it a darker blue.
Shade crevices in flowers with black.
Spray with Krylon matte.
I use Unison pastels. They are handmade in England, and their pigment is wonderful. They are pricey, but you can find them online for around 3 bucks apiece. These are some good starter colors, IMO: (I have noted which colors have cautionary labels b/c of cadmium--I believe Dick Blick's website carries this inormation.)
Safety Approval Labeled:
Grey 36 - "AP"
Grey 28 - "AP"
Grey 26 - "AP"
Grey 17 - "AP"
Grey 15 - "AP"
Brown Earth 5 - "AP"
Cautionary Labeled:
Brown Earth 11 - "CL" - cadmium
Red Earth 17 - "CL" - cadmium
Yellow 8 - "CL" - cadmium
Grey 35 - "CL" - not cadmium, but something else--sorry, I forget what it is
Brown Earth 18 - has the "AP" (safety approved) label, but California warning
You can purchase them online at Dick Blick. I also found great prices on this website, although they don't always have all colors in stock:
http://www.artsupply.com/richeson/pastels.htm
I don't usually grind up my pastels b/c the Unisons are soft enough to just run the brush along the pastel stick. After some trial and error, I have finally found a storage system that I am quite happy with. They are bead containers that screw together (come in groups of 5)--I bought them at Michael's.
Here are the colors I have used so far for this medallion:
The reddish brown on the body:
The reddish brown for the pinking (nose, eyes, ears):
The burnt umber color for the body and shading of grooves/wrinkles:
The light grey that I frequently dust on the body. I use light grey on a perlino simply because when I look at my reference photos of perlinos, I see the grey there. (Yes, the medallion started out totally white.)
The yellow I used on the body (use sparingly--it's bright!) If a color is too dark or saturated, go back over it with white, off-white, or light grey to lighten it back up before you spray it. I never mix my pastels before applying them--I always mix them on the horse. I think I'm kindof abnormal in doing this, but it just works for me and I feel more free painting this way.
My paintbrushes. I get them in packs of 10 (or 12?) at Michael's--I've tried lots of different kinds of brushes, and these are my favorites for pastels. For oils, I spring for the more expensive ones, but that's another chapter...
Lightly dust entirely medallion with off-white, then spray with Krylon Crystal Clear. Let dry, then spray with Krylon Matte. I don't use Crystal Clear between every layer, but I do like to use it once or twice on a horse to create more depth.
Dust body only (not mane or background) with light grey.
Add more burnt umber shading to mane.
Add slightly more pinking to the pinkest areas of the eyes, muzzle, and ears.
Add more burnt umber shading to body grooves/wrinkles (including nostrils).
Add more blue to background and flowers, blue and yellow to leaves.
Spray with Krylon Matte.
Dust body with pure white.
Shade background with black to darken more.
Shade center of flowers with black.
Spray with Krylon Matte.
Dust entire body and mane with light grey.
Shade crevices/wrinkles that still need it with burnt umber.
Shade grooves in mane with burnt umber.
Spray with Krylon Matte.
At this point, I am happy with the body color. I would like to spray a final layer using Dullcote, b/c I don't like a light dilute like this to have much of a sheen to it--again, this is just personal preference.
I know that Dullcote will dull down the color slightly, so I add *little* more pinking and burnt umber shading before spraying the Dullcote.
Now I am ready to paint the eyes!
Alrighty, I'm all finished up here! I almost forgot to take pix while I was painting the eyes, so I only got a couple of them. Sorry 'bout that!
I use acrylics to paint the eyes. (I keep them thinned with water as I work.)
First I paint the eyeball white. Then I use a little burnt sienna (reddish-brown) and raw umber to tint the corners of the eyeballs. The whites of the eyes aren't necessarily white--they're frequently pink or even dark brown. Then I paint a black eyeball:
Then I mix white with a *very* little blue and black and create a ring *just* inside the outer edge of the black eyeball. Then I use a slightly darker mixture of the white, blue, and black as I get closer to the center of the eye. The center of this particular eye seems to have some blue in it, so I used blue and black for that:
Once that dries, I gloss the eye with Liquitex High Gloss Varnish. I do two layers of gloss, letting it dry thoroughly between layers. I also put a small dab of gloss on the inner most part of the nostril:
Finally, I sign the back, then take a better quality photo in my photo tent:
