The Problem With Horseflesh

Do you ever notice... no wait... better change that for trademark reasons... as I get older I find that things that I once found easy I can no longer do - brush the fringe out of my eyes is one of them - for some reason I have lost the knack of painting painting horses with oils.

Quite why I can't do this any more is not clear. After all it's easy. All you do is undercoat black, highlight white, apply the oil paint, brush it off with a blusher brush and bob's your live in lover; two days later the paint has dried and you have a horse with a lustrous sheen, shadows and highlights.

Here is my latest effort.

Ok it perhaps doesn't help that I have undercoated with white. And in point of fact I am not that displeased with the result - or I won't be when I have had a chance to work on the shading.

In case you are wondering the liquid on the models is a mix of brown ink and satin varnish, and perhaps there is the rub.

The black horse on the far left of the picture was done using straight Vallejo black glaze. And the grey next to it is done with glaze medium and grey paint. true, they lack the depth of tone of the models done in oils, but they equally don't take three or four days to dry between layers.

Anyone who remembers the work of Bill Brewer of the Rye Stamp and Model shop - particularly his elephants - will understand how wonderful models are when painted with oils.

And it is perhaps relevant that back in the sunlit days of my youth my success with painting horses in this manner was in 15mm.

peace:)