How to Paint Horses

A painting technique to recreate the hair on a horse and that can easily be adapted for other projects. The horses featured are Wood Elf Glade Riders that will become Dark Elf Dark Riders.
Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic
www.paintingclinic.com

[@MarcFraley]

Nice technique. I appreciate you sharing this method of adding realistic texture to horses.

[@Lierbal]

Another wonderful video as always! I love painting horses and you have provided a good reference for a technique that I haven't tried before. Thank you!

[@Vyerel]

Perfect timing on this video cause I'm now doing the cavalry in my dark elf army. Thanks a lot for a solid technique

[@jamesevans886]

Very good tutorial! If you look very carefully at photos of horses you will find that they are counter shaded like many animals meaning the inside of the legs and stomach are a few shade lighter. Hooves can be stripy but the old timers never bought a horse with whitish or pinkish hooves. The black around the skin and lips are a very dark blue black and high lights bluish. Any pink areas can have patches and spots of this colour. The insides of underneath the hooves are normally a lot lighter than the outside. This lightness is a little funny so I would add medium to light grey rather than beige or ivory to lighten it. Not sure at what scale I would ignore these tips but I would consider 28mm to be about as small as I would do this.

[@ncscotsman]

This is a fantastic tutorial! You make me actually want to paint horses. I have tons of Nap cavalry that I dread to paint.... all those horses!

[@MrRlg2010]

very nicely done. i was a farrier (horseshoer) in my younger years. most shoes are as you say, very dark and dingy before being put on but there is a technique called "diming" that shines the shoes by running a rasp around the edges. creates a shiny silver appearance on the outside edges. any farrier with pride will take a moment to do this. also as horses walk, it wears down the shoes and also makes them shiny.

[@avenger038]

excellent tutorial !! definitely going to attempt to paint my horses using your method thanks for the video !!

[@gorlestondoug]

Thanks for a very succinct tutorial, I found this very helpful.

[@matao0661]

you just added another great how-to to your list of videos, thanks!

[@mobileandhostile7895]

⭐️ very effective technique - thanks for sharing ⭐️ 👍

[@1madhammer]

Really good tutorial - those horses at the end look really natual.

[@ThePaintingClinic]

Experiment and use what you are comfortable with. I use Princeton Art & Brush 4050r #2. I prefer them over the very pricey kolinsky sables.

[@ThePaintingClinic]

You could use either grey or brown. Your choice. You could also add small amount of dark blue. Since its undead I'd go with blue.

[@jimeronimo]

Incredible Job. Thanks for the time to make this one.. Awesome.

[@FirstDagger]

Horse color changed over the decades and also depends on the breed, so not all colors are applicable if you are doing historical horses.

[@kerel995]

Actually fantastic job

[@modeldads]

Very good, excellent work!

[@ROCINANTEIII]

May the HORSE be with you ! Great work ! Top Shelf !

[@eog0579]

I would say that horse shoes are bright silver in real life because they get polished by wear on the roads and fields. Dark grey horse shoes are ones that haven't been nailed on to a foot yet. I'm not saying that reality always looks the best on models but just mentioning the "fact"

[@barcephus2]

Outstanding!!!

[@greenskin3000]

Great as always! Interesting thoughts and techniques, will add those to my mental toolbox =) Cheers!

[@chriscurlee978]

RE the horse shoes...you are correct on the color when they are first put on. However, once the horse has gone over a hard surface, the shoes will get a shiny steel color.

[@gaustadtpanzer3606]

I agree 100% A little research on a the subject your going to paint goes a long way. For example I did not know that actual medieval war horses were not our current typical horses at all. In fact those horse during that time were BIGGER then most horses these days for obvious reasons. I am not sure what the breeding line was or which breeds they were.

[@ThePaintingClinic]

98% sure it would be fine. Don't think I've mixed the two, but it very rare that acrylic paints react.

[@FeliPeltier]

I wish I could get the paint to come off my brushes like you do...

[@FirstDagger]

Thin your paints and prime the surface.

[@HaWior]

Hate to paint horses. Your method looks interesting. It helps. Thanks for charing.

[@WagesofSin309]

Great vid. Do you use flow enhancer for your paints or is it just the kind of paint you use that has this attribute? I only have Citadel paints and I am finding that they dry up very quickly, even when I add water.

[@adeyknowles]

Great video!!!...as a matter of interest which colors did you use for the 2 darker horses?.....thanks!

[@miedde]

They look great. How long did it take you to just paint one? This video will help me with my chaos knigts, eventhou there is mostly armour on them.

[@TheLordcontraindicat]

Lovely - TY CS

[@nanodave1980]

Hi doc, always love watching your older videos. Just curious do you still paint your horses in this style?

[@ThePaintingClinic]

Don't think i've painted any horses since then. Other than an basic paint job I have no reason not to paint them this way.

[@e-4airman124]

thank you

[@Aszketa]

Thank you. :)

[@ThePaintingClinic]

I only use water. I hear Citadel paints dry very fast.

[@CubusMaximus]

really cool tut on the horses... would u mind to share what Browns you have used on the dark and the reddish one? thanks. Keep up the fantastic work...

[@ThePaintingClinic]

If I didn't say in the vid then I don't know. Since I want every horse to look different I don't write down the color scheme for one-off minis.

[@wheatermayful]

Just fyi... a chestnut IS a color, not a breed. I think you confused it with a paint. Paints are a breed of quarter horse origin, Pintos are a color pattern on a horse.

[@shelbyfoister587]

Horses look great... Watched this video in hopes of picking up some tips on layering, I think it's a good start.

[@derekcutsinger3511]

Great tutorial! I've got one question: I've been trying to branch out with brushes. So far I've only been using Citadel's brushes. Their fine detail brush is pretty good, but I like the way the brush you used here goes on the model. Any recommendations for brushes? Thanks :)

[@zabilife]

Derek Cutsinger Citadel brushes are very overpriced. I get Kolinsky sable brushes for the same price or even less from my local art store compared to Citadel synthetic brushes.

[@primerjohnpaints]

Added to Reference Page

[@xbluexastrayx]

"You don't want a ripped horse..that just looks creepy..." And thus, chaos steeds were born..lol!

[@leonatus221]

Which colours did you use?

[@ThePaintingClinic]

No idea. With one-off stuff like this I just use whatever and don't write it down.

[@TheGoGoat91]

Are you sure the first layer is english uniform?? Mine looks a lot more darker and has more green to it

[@ThePaintingClinic]

Likely just the lighting.

[@jamesevans886]

The much older Vallejo English uniform is much darker. I use the newer English uniform as a highlight for it.

[@ElexysVi]

Did you use citadel colors for this one?

[@ThePaintingClinic]

No. It's all Vallejo, all the time.

[@ElexysVi]

ThePaintingClinic Hi, thanks for your quick response. I started painting my wood elf glade riders yesterday and this tutorial helped me a lot! I'm actually thinking about switching to Vallejo colors from Citadel since the containers are much better... Anyway, great tutorial, thank you! ;)

[@Sirius1066]

Any thoughts on doing this in 15mm?

[@ThePaintingClinic]

Don't. That small of scale fur texture would make them look like wooly mammoths.

[@Sirius1066]

Thanks, I appreciate the quick response. Great videos. I have couple of hundred french horse to do yet and don't like the ones I have completed. they are just too flat looking.

[@ThePaintingClinic]

Less than 1 hour per horse.

[@Aszketa]

I have a question for you. II have mostly Citadel paints, but I ran out of some colors and I need to buy more. But I am thinking about replacing my Citadel paints with Vallejo ones as I kinda prefer that since I'm following your videos. :) Do Citadel and Vallejo paints like each other or mixing them would have unexpected effects?

[@ZombieMasterEd25]

do you watch dr who tardis sonic screwdriver ect.. can you repaint a sonic screwdriver toy to look like the actual prop? 11th dr who

[@RavenismySTAR]

Chestnut is a colour not a breed :P

[@Bluecloudandrew]

Well now, that's really good for my standards. People at my store would rob you for those...rob you...

[@ThePaintingClinic]

I'm not a Dr. Who fan.

[@horsecrazykelly3940]

A ... A ches.. N... UT IS NOT A HORSE BREED! "EQUESTRIAN CRINGE"