Apparently no-one wants to reveal their secrets of oil paints vs. model horses and the various colour combinations that make up a bright bay horse....(Well, for the right price??) so it took a LOT of trail and error to find the perfect base colour.
Raw sienna wasn't working, burnt sienna and burnt umber were far too dark....
And then it hits me! Yellow ochre! Of course! I mixed about 2/3 of yellow ocre with 1/3 of burnt sienna and came out with this (note: colour is lighter on film than IRL) :
And here is my reference horse:
(innee cute?)
With the appropriate highlights and shading I think it will come out pretty spot on. After I took this photo I finished off the black shading on the lower legs and blocked in the black mane. Once again, I regret my choice of material for the mane. Even with a couple coats of primer, the darned clay was moulting EVERYWHERE and getting into the fresh paint. Now instead of a perfectly smooth horse, I have little flakes of dried clay here and there. Not. Happy.
I might be able to fix it. Or I might just leave it. He's destined for the shelf anyway.
I'm feeling pretty good about painting with oils. Before the madness of model horses, I had NEVER painted with oils, and now... I prefer them over anything else. I tried pastels. Lets just say that my finished product looks like he rolled in sand. Acrylics are great for markings but I can't imagine shading with such fast-drying paint.
Oil paints are perfect and no-one will change my mind until something terribly wrong happens and I need something to blame.
In a couple days I'll start shading the body and face...
It can only get better!
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